Vehicle fires, explosions under investigation
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Apr 13/01) - There were at least three vehicle fires or explosions in the North this past winter and Transport Canada is still at a loss to explain any of them.
The gas tank on Richard and Sandra Wright's 2000 Chevy Astro van exploded on a cold December day in Fort Simpson. There was no fire.
In Norman Wells, a 2000 Chevy K-1500 caught fire after an apparent explosion, also on an extremely cold December day.
Berny Dery, safety advisor for Imperial Oil, which was leasing the truck, said an employee started the vehicle using a command start and heard a "popping" noise shortly thereafter.
"He looked outside and (the truck) was in flames," Dery said.
Also in Norman Wells, Enbridge Pipelines lost a Ford vehicle to fire on a very cold day.
There were no injuries in any of the incidents.
Static theory
Dery said it's believed the gas tank exploded on the K-1500, but it's unknown because fire demolished the vehicle.
Dery said it's possible that static electricity sparked the gas tank or fuel lines.
The tank or fuel lines, made of a high-density plastic compound, may have shrunk and cracked in the cold, Dery speculated.
As a precaution, Imperial Oil has installed static straps on all its vehicles.
Lars Eif, chief of defects investigations and recalls for Transport Canada in Ottawa, said Dery's static electricity theory is "certainly a possibility.
"Plastic containers, whether it's a gas tank or a portable container, will build up a static electric charge if there's no way of dissipating it," Eif explained. The Ford tank, although it was made of metal, would also be susceptible to a static charge.
"It could have something to do either with the way the vehicles are constructed are the materials that they were using for construction of the vehicle."
The extremely cold conditions and very low relative humidity in the North are conducive to static electricity build up, he said.
Under the Motor Vehicles Safety Act, manufacturers are responsible for conducting cold weather testing of their vehicles.
However, there is no Canadian safety standard pertaining to static electricity. If enough incidents are detected, a static electricity standard could be written into the Act, Eif said, but at this point, such instances are not common.
A mystery
Why these incidents have occurred in Norman Wells and Fort Simpson, but haven't been reported from the far north or the eastern Arctic is perplexing, Eif acknowledged.
"Why doesn't the military have trouble in Alert with their vehicles? These are questions that beg to be answered," he said. "At this time there's very little to go on."
General Motors is conducting its own analysis of the Astro van's gas tank and is compelled by law to turn the results over to Transport Canada, Eif noted.
Faye Roberts, manager of Public Relations for General Motors in Oshawa, Ontario, said Monday she wasn't aware how far the investigation had progressed.
"We wouldn't necessarily make public the results of the investigation or its time-line," Roberts said.
Dery said he hopes the problem can be identified and remedied.
"We're really looking to GM to be proactive on this and not wait until there's several fires," Dery said. "The loss of a $40,000 vehicle is fairly significant, but the biggest loss would have been if there was a family involved or a driver that got injured or burnt."
