Berth at Delta coal export terminal shuttered for 10 weeks after fire

A fire at Westshore Terminals has forced the shutdown of one of the Delta port facility’s two berths.

In an update posted Sunday, the company said the fire broke out Saturday on a shiploader that services Berth 1.

Crews were able to put the fire out and no one was hurt.

There was no structural damage, but the company says a preliminary inspection concluded the berth would be out of commission for about 10 weeks for repairs.

1:52 Massive fire temporarily ceases operations at major B.C. ocean port

It said operations will continue as normal at Berth 2, and that the company would “work with its customers and the railways to reduce the impact as much as possible.”

The outage is expected to cut the terminals’ throughput for the year from an estimated 26 million tonnes down to 24-24.5 million tonnes.

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The company said it will provide an updated timeline on the outage after a more detailed inspection and confirmation on the time required to source replacement parts.

Westshore is Canada’s busiest coal export terminal, and handles material mined from Canada and the western U.S.