A safety inspection on all large propane plants in Ontario will be completed by Friday, according to a new report released Tuesday afternoon.
The audit on propane facilities has already begun, according to the organization that authored the report, the Technical Safety and Standards Authority. The priority was given to about 150 sites that hold tanks with more than 5,000 gallons of propane.
The TSSA said any sites where hazards are identified will be shut down immediately.
The report was given to the provincial government at 5 p.m. Tuesday -- a deadline imposed after a massive blast at a propane facility in North York forced more than 1,000 residents from their home on Aug. 10.
Consumer Affairs Minister Harinder Takhar said the province wanted information on where all the large propane plants are located in Ontario and wanted to know the TSSA's plan for a detailed inspection of all facilities.
Takhar said the report will give officials a better idea about which propane facilities are located near schools and residential clusters. Before he was given the report, he told CTV Toronto he wanted to see the inspections on all the large facilities completed in the next couple of weeks.
The TSSA report also outlined their plans for the next few months. The organization said it will re-audit each propane facility in the province by the end of 2008. There are more than 1,000 facilities in Ontario.
The TSSA and government officials have come under fire ever since several tanks exploded at the Sunrise Propane facility in North York. The blast caused severe damage to several homes and businesses in the Keele Street and Wilson Avenue area where the plant is located. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
A firefighter died at the scene as well as another person who has yet to be identified. The body is believed to belong to an employee of the plant.
In a prepared statement released to the media on Tuesday, Sunrise officials said that they are cooperating fully with the authorities in numerous investigations. The company has also come under fire and in the statment, Sunrise cautioned the public not to jump to any conclusions about how their business has been conducted.
"Currently there are numerous investigations into the incident and Sunrise is cooperating fully with the authorities," the statement said. "However, out of an abundance of caution and a desire for the investigatory process to unfold free of speculation and misinformation, we will not be making any further public comments at this time.
"We remain committed to cooperating with investigators and encourage all concerned to assume an equality prudent position and refrain from a rush to judgment.
The company said that they recognize the situation has been difficult for the community but that all the questions would be answered "only in the fullness of time."
In the meantime, some critics called for the TSSA to be disbanded.
NDP MPP Peter Kormos said the organization should be scrapped and that the government should instead be responsible for overlooking safety inspections.
"The TSSA has demonstrated itself to be an absolute failure," he said. "There was a huge catastrophic explosion in North York a week ago with the potential to have lost hundreds of lives if not more, as a result of the TSSA's failure to competently regulate and police."
The report said that the safety audits will take worst-case scenarios into consideration such as looking at how another massive explosion would impact nearby populations.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss
