A spectacular tank fire at Sarnia's Suncor refinery 20 years ago demonstrated the value of the Chemical Valley Emergency Coordinating Organization.
Community Awareness Emergency Response General Manager Dean Edwardson says it was a significant event for the mutual aid organization.
"The fire demonstrated our capabilities of handling such emergencies," said Edwardson.
"We are really blessed with the fact that we have great expertise both in our municipal and in our industrial firefighters and their ability to address these kind of issues and try to prevent loss of infrastructure and risk to the community."
A large storm with heavy rain and lightning swept through Sarnia-Lambton around midnight July 19, 1996.
At 12:45am a lightning bolt struck a storage tank at Suncor that contained a gasoline component.
There was an explosion and the refinery tank erupted in flames.
Multiple fire departments were requested for mutual aid to battle the blaze.
Remarkably there were no injuries.
The refinery's production was not disrupted and damage was limited to one storage tank.
Surrounding tanks and other equipment were kept cool with multiple streams of water.
