Statement on incident at Tilbury expansion

Aug 23, 2017

​SURREY, BC – At 10:25 a.m. on Saturday, August 19, FortisBC was notified of an incident at the site of our Tilbury plant expansion in Delta. The plant is currently undergoing commissioning. FortisBC responded, along with local fire and police departments.

Contractors conducting the commissioning reported a brief ignition from a refrigerant line, which was extinguished shortly thereafter. Fire detection and suppression equipment on site was activated and functioned as designed, containing the incident. Emergency response procedures were also activated and worked as planned.

One member of the contractor team on site was treated for injuries and released.

Safety is a priority for FortisBC. It’s important to remember that this incident was limited to the refrigerant portion of the plant and did not pose a danger to anyone outside the plant. FortisBC looks forward to conducting this investigation with its contractor to ensure we understand the cause.

Existing operations at the original Tilbury plant, which has been in operation since 1971, were not impacted.