The Ogden Road fire: Reason to be proud

Late last night, Calgary Fire Department crews successfully extinguished the long-smouldering fire at Calgary Metal Recycling. While clean-up efforts will continue for several days, Ogden Road has re-opened to traffic and neighbouring businesses were allowed to resume their operations on Thursday morning.

On behalf of all Calgarians, I want to thank Calgary Emergency Management Agency Director Bruce Burrell and the rest of his team for their professional handling of a very tricky situation. Firefighting, efforts to minimize smoke and dust, and ongoing monitoring of air quality required a high degree of coordination amongst a multi-disciplinary response team. Yet, during the ten days for which the Municipal Emergency Plan was activated, there were no injuries reported and disruption to businesses in the area, and to Calgarians in general, was kept to a bare minimum.

Fires, especially ones like these, can easily get out of control if not handled properly. There was real risk with this fire, but the fact that it was not a major problem is a testament to how well this emergency was managed.

I am proud of how all of the parties involved – City departments, provincial agencies, neighbouring businesses and the site owners and contractors – were able to cooperate to achieve this ideal result.

I am particularly grateful for the patience displayed by everyone affected by this fire, especially the neighbouring businesses and residents in the area. Your understanding of the complexity of this situation and acceptance that it might not be an easy resolution was so important to ensure that CEMA could focus on the task at hand. 

Thank you all.

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi