Imperial emergency responders Chris, Adam, Scott and Jeff stand in front of a crane brought in in the aftermath of a tower collapse April 2. Photo courtesy of Imperial Sarnia Site Facebook.Imperial emergency responders Chris, Adam, Scott and Jeff stand in front of a crane brought in in the aftermath of a tower collapse April 2. Photo courtesy of Imperial Sarnia Site Facebook.
Sarnia

Imperial tower collapse investigation underway

Two large cranes are setting up within Imperial's Sarnia manufacturing site in the aftermath of a 150-foot tower collapse April 2.

Company spokesperson Kristina Zimmer said the skyline at the Vidal Street South site will look different for a while.

"We have one crane currently on site from Mammoet and another crane on route," said Zimmer. "These are called crawler cranes and we're bringing them to the site to reduce the load from the tower that came down inside of the refinery on April 2."

The larger of the two cranes has a boom length of 235 feet.

A collapsed fuel processing tower at Sarnia Imperial refinery Apr. 3, 2019 (BlackburnNews.com photo by Dave Dentinger) A collapsed fuel processing tower at Sarnia Imperial refinery Apr. 3, 2019

Zimmer said planning has been a critical aspect of the lift to ensure it's done safely and correctly, and there'll be ongoing safety checks while the cranes are in use.

She said an investigation team consisting of experts from outside their site is gathering facts to determine what caused the tower to fall.

Zimmer said they continue to work with regulatory authorities investigating the incident and will be reviewing the emergency response with industry and city officials.

"When the investigation is complete, we plan on sharing learnings within our company and with other industries," Zimmer said in an email.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the community needs to know what happened.

"There's no question that I realize there's probably some legal issues with the information, but at the same time as much as what can be disclosed, should be disclosed," said Bradley. "Particularly about why did this occur. That's the issue most on the minds of the public. How did this happen? It is extremely rare and checking with people who have been in industry for a long time, we can't recall the last time that a tower collapsed."

Luckily there were no injuries.

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