Warning sirens in Sudbury

I have been doing some thinking about zombies and the apocalypse. This dredged up an old memory:

Remember the times when INCO's factories would test their emergency sirens? I assume it was tests because nobody would panic or even acknowledge them, I assume it was INCO but maybe it was the city's 'civil defense' sirens.

Around 13 years years old I grasped the somewhat abstract concept of "industrial accident" (WWI research was beginning to effect my mind) and I started worrying about chemical smoke and poison gas billowing out of burning smelting plant. No one cared and so I became annoyed that the would allow the sirens 'to cry wolf' like that. Eventually I slotted those sirens with the 'emergency broadcasts' that would come on TV: "This was a test and only a test. Had this been a real emegny you would be wearing your flesh in sizzling chunks and would be puking up your lungs"

Bells, sirens, klaxtons, were important sounds in the 1980s - they were the work-drums of schooling (opening, closing and my day), the hourly tolling of Christ the King's bells (a useful clock to truant students ), phones rang with fear, a car honks as it nearly back-over me as I zoom around the side-walk om my tricycle (his fear at almost killing me becomes my own), our lives clanged back then. Now it is ring tones and beeps.

Maybe the sirens still sound in Sudbury? I don't know. The worst sound I hear out here is when racoon's fighting and they grunt, hiss and make primal mammal shrieks.

Honestly I've never heard sirens go off in the actual town so I think they might've stopped doing that. Probably because they realized that it was idiotic. The only bells I've ever heard in town were from the local schools.

When still living in lively 2 yrs ago, there would be the occasional day when I would hear the blast from INCO (Vale) every Friday at around noon when the conditions were conducive to hearing the blast.  When living in Copper Cliff 20 yrs ago on Diorite Street (little Italy), it would be my alarm telling me I was a lazy bastard sleeping too much and/or hungover.    Wasn't impressed on those hangover days.

Can't say I have heard anything since leaving Lively, but was told (yrs ago) that they test the horn every Friday at noon.  The most common use of the siren blast was to advise people there has been an event causing the air quality to be of serious enough concern to advise people to stay indoors.  I think something like this occurred around 4 yrs ago.

Would be curious to know when the last time the civil defense sirens blared in Sludgebury.     Does the city still have that capability?

They still test the Sirens weekly, the main one being Fridays at 130pm, on the Acid Plant. If you hear them other than that, its something very bad. My sisters bothe work in safety at Vale, and they have reinforced what my dad (a 40+ veteran of INCO) always told us- if it sounds like the queen mary is coming up kelly lake, get inside- immediately.

If the winds are blowing into Sudbury, and a nickel carbonyl leak of any size happened, people would be in for a treat.... thankfully it is a heavy gas, and doesn't travel far, even with winds, and disperses quickly.

When i was growing up we had a civil defense siren at the end of our street up on the top of a hill. it was always ominous, yet oddly reassuring. I do remember it being tested a few times as a kid, and being freaked out by it.

I remember when I was doing my coop at INCO in environmental controls. I forget exactly where we were but we were parked basically under giant vats of acid. I think they were sulfuric acid but I don't remember that detail well. I was standing there alone when the sirens went off. It scared the crap out of me. There I was a 16 year old standing under vats of acid alone with sirens going off! I didn't know what to do but as I looked around everyone seemed to be ignoring the sirens so I assumed it was just the test and nothing to worry about. So it was a startling but interesting experience.

I think the last time they went off for real was when Vale just took over and they had the "replacement" workers in. As a result a group of families started a program called the Canary's.

There are some news stories still floating around.

Canary Article

The CANARY's were also a visible presence during the last USW strike.

And here we go...

http://www.mastermindmedia.net/vale-nitrogen-dioxide-leak-causes-emergency-shut-down-of-coppercliff-sudbury/

Torgo - you cost me a few sanity points untangling this and dealing with all the coincidences.

The article talks about a 'Trioxin' leak. 'Trioxin-245' is the 'zombie gas' from the great Return of the Living Dead (1985) and is an in-joke reference to George Romero's 'Crazies' (1973) which was originally called 'Code Name: Trixie'.

At first I though the article had misspelled 'sulphur TrioxIDE' but the headline makes it clear-ish that its' a jokey 'pseudo-news' article (to promote a screening of Beetlejuice?) based on the the real nitrogen dioxide leak in Copper Cliff by comparing it to a 'zombie gas'.  I never thought I would say this, but, "Too soon!", give it at least a single day until we know if there is any fall-out (literal or figurative). The big chemical fire in China only puts this in worse taste. Oh, marketeers....

Now a weird part of this is I spent an hour last night thinking about Trioxin for use in my zombie game (see the Game Forum if you want to join). I decided that Trioxin in my world would come from Trinitite - the green glassy rocks left on the desert floor after the Trinity nuclear bomb test.  I really like the word 'Trioxin' and use it as the name of my current play-list of songs (all 1970s/80s 'horror Moog' songs). 

I also decided that the sky in my zombie-world will be yellowish (turning greener at dawn/dusk). Here is the picture today from Copper Cliff.


[A yellow plume was visible above the Sudbury, Ont.-area Vale mining complex this morning - CBC]

As I said it's the zombies' world now, we just live in it....

Coincidence aside, I have compiled a personal list of INCO/Vale industrial leaks for use in my crime&punish class, if you know of a complete list somewhere please tell me. Here is a compilation of Sulphur Dioxide leaks I found.

Inco Fined Total of $375,000 for Three Sulpher Dioxide Releases

14 February 2003

Source: Canadian Home Ministry, Ottawa [Not sure what ministry this actually refers to -Hobb]

Inco Limited has been fined a total of $375,000 after pleading guilty to five charges relating to sulphur dioxide releases in 1995, 1997 and 1998 from its Copper Cliff Smelter Complex in Sudbury.

The company received fines totaling $350,000 for a November 16, 1995 sulphur dioxide discharge from its Acid Plant. The Court was told that scores of people in the nearby community of Gatchell reported to hospital for treatment of symptoms including burning and watery eyes, coughing, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches and difficulty walking.

In addition, the discharge caused problems at the Sudbury Memorial Hospital. Ambulances were diverted, a heart bypass operation was disrupted and there were evacuations at both the hospital and a nursing home. Businesses in Gatchell had to shut down when staff and customers could no longer remain on the premises.

ALSO VIDEO FROM CHINESE CHEMICAL EXPLOSION

I knew the explosion was bad in China but I didn't know how bad. That video and this video show the power:
https://youtu.be/oGcP84ouyAo

I hope the casualties are as low as they are saying (70 dead and 700 injured) because that is a huge explosion in what looks like an area surrounded by residential.

They say the explosions were equivalent to 21 tonnes of TNT.

It is hard to imagine what the Halifax explosion was like. They say it was the equivalent to 2.9 kilotons of TNT.