Port Coquitlam mayor reflects on response readiness after Canadian Pacific railyard fire

The mayor of Port Coquitlam is responding after a train struck a tanker truck at the Canadian Pacific railyard the night of Monday, Jan. 22.

“What can we do in the future to prevent this and how was the response that we had, and is there anything that we learn from that response?”

It could be months until the cause of Monday’s crash is known.

Greg Moore says the Port Coquitlam railyard is the largest in the province.

He adds it’s safely operated, and a lot of explosive substances run through it.

“The City of Port Coquitlam has worked quite closely with CP, and we’ve been doing tabletop exercises and integration work for the last number of years so that when a situation like this occurs, we’ve already prepared for it. Now, of course, we can always learn from real situations like this, and that’s what we plan to do.”

Fire Chief Nick Delmonico says while crews investigated what substances were burning that night, a nearby mall and approximately 300 residents were evacuated.

Nobody was hurt.