Two Toronto propane facilities were shut down Thursday for violations detected during ongoing safety inspections launched in the wake of last week's explosion at Sunrise Propane.
The Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), the agency that oversees Ontario's propane facilities, also shut down five other facilities across the province on Thursday. However, they have been allowed to re-open.
A Scarborough, Ont. U-Haul refill station had to cease operations after a small leak was found in its propane system.
The station is located at 4095 Kingston Rd., between Markham Road and Morningside Avenue. Family homes sit across the street from the site, which is also near a GO Transit station.
Inspectors also found that no one was at the location who was certified to operate the system. This meant it should have been closed and padlocked, but that was not the case.
David Lisle, a spokesperson with the TSSA, said these are serious violations.
"Well certainly these people who are dispensing it from one storage facility, one tank to another, need to understand the properties of the fuel, they need to understand emergency procedures, they need to understand how to do it properly and safely," Lisle told CTV Toronto.
Another facility, at 660 Evans Avenue near Sherway Gardens mall, was also closed because it could not provide proof that employees had been properly trained.
The TSSA is inspecting all of the province's 3,000 propane sites. The organization has promised to have the largest 150 inspected by the end of day Friday.
The largest sites have tanks that hold at least 5,000 gallons, or almost 19,000 litres, of propane. These facilities are similar in size to Sunrise Propane.
In addition to the Scarborough facility, the propane sites closed today are located in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cornwall, St. George and Ottawa.
These facilities were temporarily closed after they failed to prove that staff had been properly trained.
Lisle said that inspectors will follow a zero-tolerance policy for any safety violations found during the inspections.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss
