Fatal tanker truck crash on Hwy. 407 in Vaughan 'devastating': OPP

Nearly 40 firefighters responded as plume of smoke filled the sky

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 1, 2018
Lisa Queen

The gruesome nature of a fatal crash involving a tanker truck on Hwy. 407 in Vaughan at the height of the evening rush hour Oct. 31 is becoming increasingly clear.

“Devastating, just completely consumed by fire,” Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said the morning of Nov. 1, adding the cause is still unknown.

“It wasn’t much of a scene, outside of two burned-out shells of vehicles, a passenger vehicle and that fuel tanker truck which was destroyed as well.”

The highway reopened Nov. 1 at about 6 a.m., approximately 13 hours after the truck crashed through a concrete barrier, flipped over and smashed into an oncoming vehicle on Oct. 31 just before 5 p.m., he said.

The tanker released a plume of smoke about three kilometres long and a kilometre wide.

The truck driver, a 41-year-old man from Brampton, and the driver of the vehicle, a 49-year-old man from Mississauga, were both killed.

As terrible as the collision was, it was fortunate nobody else on the busy highway was hurt or killed, Schmidt said.

“Looking at the fireball, we had no idea (initially) how many vehicles were involved,” he said.

Vaughan Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi described the crash as a “tragic incident” while Deputy Chief Grant Moffatt said the extent of the fire was staggering.

“It was overwhelming, the amount of fire you see," Moffatt said. "But that’s our job, we bring control from chaos.”

Praising the OPP for ensuring fire trucks could get through the traffic to the scene quickly, Moffatt said firefighters worked quickly to contain diesel fuel on fire, which was at risk of travelling through the storm sewer system.

In that case, burning fuel floats on water and follows its path, Rizzi said.

“All of a sudden, you have floating fire,” she said.

Almost 40 firefighters, a rescue truck and three tankers responded to the scene, Rizzi said.

Because there is no water supply on the highway and fire trucks can only hold two to three minutes worth of water at a time, trucks picking up water, dropping it off and reloading provided a continuous source of water to fight the fire, she said.

In addition to crews at the scene, nine officials, including Rizzi, were at Vaughan’s emergency operations centre overseeing management of the scene.

Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua tweeted a message during the incident.

“As media reports unfold, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the devastating accident on Highway 407,” he said.

“We are grateful for the effort of our first responders battling the flames and bringing order to the situation.”