Two incidents involving hazardous materials impacted the Montreal area in September, including an asbestos discovery that closed a high school, and a lithium battery fire that led to a port neighbourhood lockdown.
The Horizon Jeunesse high school in Laval, Quebec, will not open for the school year until mid-October following air quality tests that confirmed the presence of asbestos fibres, according to the Laval School Service Center.
Some 1,400 students are either learning remotely or at a nearby school and arena until the decontamination process is completed, school officials said.
Exposure to asbestos can lead to pulmonary diseases, including lung cancer.
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“The school’s cleaning and decontamination operation is already underway and will continue this weekend and in the coming weeks,” announced Nassima Araar, director of the Horizon Jeunesse School. “It will be carried out according to the established protocol and under the supervision of experts.”
School officials noted that the presence of asbestos had already been determined and set for removal. However, late summer renovations accidentally initiated the school’s ventilation system, raising fears that the fibres were dispersed deeper into the school’s environment.
Battery Fire
A Port of Montreal terminal container filled with 15,000 kilograms of lithium batteries caught fire and produced heavy smoke for some 12 hours on September 23, prompting authorities to issue a shelter-in-place order.
Martin Guilbault, division chief of the Montreal fire service, told local residents that although the incident’s odour was strong, it was unlikely to create substantial health concerns.
“Our Port Prevention and Security teams have been at work since the beginning of the incident, which resulted in no injuries,” Port de Montréal posted on social media.
While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Montreal fire officials spent the week trying to raise awareness about how common these types of battery fires have become due to major increases in battery production worldwide.
The fire service noted that these small batteries can create a chain reaction process condition dubbed “thermal runaway” that makes the fire very challenging to extinguish.
In 2023, Toronto Fire Services recorded 55 lithium-ion battery fires in the city, up from 29 similar fires in 2022, according to an annual report.
In late June 2024, a fire at a lithium battery factory in South Korea killed at least 22 people.
