THE SURVIVING SUNRISE PROPANE WITNESS COMPLETED HIS TASK TRANSFERRING PROPANE. HE OBSERVED SMOKE AT THE NORTH END OF THE FACILITY. THAT IS CLOSER TO THE OLD CANADIAN FORCES BASE DOWNSVIEW OF COURSE AND COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO THE TRUCK TO TRUCK TRANSFER WHICH WASN'T THE SOURCE OF THE EXPLOSION. SUNRISE CAN STILL BE CALLED COLLATERAL DAMAGE UNTIL THE OTHER SOURCE IS NAMED.
Illegal propane transfer completed before Sunrise blast: driver
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 3, 2008 | 7:10 PM ET Comments28Recommend32
CBC News
A former truck driver for a Toronto propane facility that exploded last month said he had just finished an illegal truck-to-truck propane transfer — a daily routine he said he performed on orders from his boss — before the blast.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, Felipe De Leon, 40, said he had completed the illegal propane transfer when he noticed smoke at the north end of the Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases plant in Toronto's Downsview area.
Direct truck-to-truck propane transfers are illegal because they increase the risk of a gas leak or a fire.
"I heard a small boom, small only, not too big. Then I scared, I panicked. I don't know what's going on," the truck driver said Wednesday.
De Leon said he then went inside the facility's office to tell Sunrise employee Parminder Singh Saini to flee the building. Toronto police on Wednesday identified Saini as the previously unidentified victim of the Aug. 10 blast that forced thousands out of their homes.
"I asked [Saini] to run away, but he didn't listen to me. He go towards the dark, where the smoke is," De Leon said.
De Leon said he then ran for his life, with flames at his side and debris falling on his head. After scaling a fence, De Leon made it to Wilson Avenue where he flagged down a police officer, who took him to a nearby ambulance.
"I pinching my face, I still alive? Yeah," he said, recounting the moment. "I can't believe it, that I'm still alive."
De Leon said he waited more than three hours as blood oozed from a wound on his head. He asked one of the attendants for help but no one would let him leave. De Leon said he was so overwhelmed with anxiety that he eventually left the ambulance bus and flagged down a taxi to take him to the hospital.
The Technical Standards and Safety Authority, Ontario's independent safety regulator for fuels, said last month that a truck driver was illegally transferring propane from one truck to another before the plant blew up.
A statement on its website said in part that, "prior to the fire and explosion, a truck driver at the Murray Road facility was engaged in a truck-to-truck propane transfer. The practice of transferring propane from one truck to another is prohibited in Ontario. The investigation further determined that the prohibited unsafe practice of transferring propane product from one truck to another was a frequent and routine operating practice at the facility."
A former employee of the propane plant has said he witnessed a host of unsafe practices at the facility.
De Leon said he did not know truck-to-truck propane transfers were illegal in Ontario.
Saini, 25, an international student from India, worked part-time at Sunrise. His identity was confirmed through DNA testing conducted by the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, according to police.
He was the second confirmed death due to the explosion at the Murray Road propane facility. Toronto firefighter Bob Leek also died at the scene.
Video
- Steven D'Souza reports: Driver says he completed illegal propane transfer before Sunrise blast (Runs: 2:48)
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