Five years after Elizabeth Roy and six others died in a Bloor Street West natural gas explosion, her son is campaigning for Canada's gas distributors to adopt excess flow valves to prevent similar tragedies.Peter Roy, an engineer, has advocated for the valves' adoption since the April 24, 2003 explosion, and said Enbridge Gas Distribution has since adopted a voluntary excess flow valve program on all new and renewed installations.
The valves protect against runaway gas and high flow rates.
"For me, there's a closure to it all that something positive has come of this," Roy told mourners gathered early on Saturday, April 19 at the Bloor Street and Poplar Avenue site to dedicate a memorial garden and plaque to their loved ones.
"Yes, it cost us seven people that we all loved. But there's a greater picture that's very positive as a result."
Roy acknowledged that positive dimmed Friday with news that a natural gas explosion in a northern Saskatchewan town had killed a father and son.
"It's far too close. It tells me that the job is not done," Roy said.
Still, the spring sun shone in an azure sky Saturday, as it had five years earlier on that fateful day.
Private developer Manny Pereira incorporated the reflective garden in his redevelopment of 3885 Bloor St. W. into a three-storey building of residential units and two retail stores. The explosion razed the site's former strip plaza of four businesses and five apartments.
Prayers and support comforted the grieving.
"In the days ahead, we will continue to band together to lift each other up as we still go through our sorrow," said Rev. Don Cuff of Queensway Cathedral.
"We realize since that day, April 24, 2003, the world has fallen apart for many of you. Our faith has been challenged, but our overview of life has enlarged because we've never lost hope and faith in our community that cares and in a God that we trust."
April 24, 2003 began like any other day. People got up and went to work. Customers came and went.
Then around 1:30 p.m. a deafening blast forever shattered the lives of seven families.
Dora Carambelas, 60, Tina Kirkimtzis (nee Carambelas), 32, longtime resident Robert Fairley, 50, esthetician Irene Miyama, 52, as well as hair salon clients Adele Brown, 73, Elizabeth Roy, 74 and Lillian Guglietti, 73, were killed. Four people were injured.
At the time, Deputy Coroner Jim Cairns said the devastation reminded him "of the bombings in Belfast."
Historically, it was the single worst loss of life in Etobicoke, second only to Hurricane Hazel. It was also the largest loss of life ever from a pipeline explosion in Canada.
"It's a day we should all remember," said Ward 5 (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) Councillor Peter Milczyn, whose office organized the fifth anniversary memorial dedication. "We should all remember the ones who were lost, the wonderful memories of their lives. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of those seven people who continue to struggle..."
Soheil Mosun Ltd., a local custom architectural fabrication firm, created the memorial plaque and two benches for the site's memorial garden.
Pereira dedicated its space. "I promised the owner from Day One that whatever I built here, something would be done to remember the people who died," he told the Guardian last month.
Support for gas safety is also happening locally.
A fund launched by local realtor Jim Sturino and a group of volunteers has established a scholarship in excess of $10,000 to be given to a Humber College student studying for a career in the gas sector.
Warren Bitulithic Ltd. pleaded guilty in 2006 to damaging an underground natural gas pipeline without permission and was fined $225,000 in the same case.
Technical Standards and Safety Association and the provincial Ministry of Labour has appealed the provincial court trial judge's dismissal of charges last October against the remaining defendants: Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc. and its subcontractor Precision Utility Ltd.
Both companies were charged with failure to provide as accurate information as possible regarding the location of underground gas pipelines.
The Ontario Superior Court ordered a deadline of November for the filing of materials related to the appeal.