KOOTENAY NATIONAL PARK – One person is dead after a single-vehicle rollover involving a fuel truck went up in flames on Highway 93 in Kootenay National Park last night (July 19).
B.C. RCMP, which responded around 8:40 p.m., confirmed the male driver of the commercial tractor-trailer died on scene, about 10 kilometres west of the Alberta-B.C. boundary, approaching Marble Canyon.
“The vehicle was engulfed in flames,” said Cpl. Madonna Saunderson, a spokesperson for B.C. RCMP. “There does not appear to be any other vehicles involved. Sadly, the driver of the commercial vehicle was deceased at the scene.”
The highway was closed in both directions while B.C. RCMP, Covenant Health EMS and the Town of Banff's fire department attended the scene.
BC Emergency Health Services was first called to respond but was called off due to Alberta Health Services EMS being able to respond sooner.
AHS EMS spokesperson Stuart Brideaux said when EMS personnel arrived they were unable to tend to the driver inside the vehicle until the blaze was under control.
“When our units arrived, regrettably, the large tanker involved had been in a collision and then a subsequent significant fire had erupted that was, in essence, unapproachable for emergency responders,” he said.
“A local fire department did what they could to mitigate the fire and it was determined to be non-survivable for any occupants of the vehicle. So our units were stood down by RCMP and they took over the scene to investigate.”
A STARS Air ambulance was also dispatched from Calgary but was later stood down.
Due to the fuel accelerant and risk of explosion, Banff fire chief Russ Geyer said the two fire engines and nine firefighters dispatched were forced to wait about two-and-a-half hours before they could safely get within 50 metres to extinguish the vehicle and surrounding hotspots.
“It's kind of extraordinary events like this where we have to unfortunately sit back and monitor until we can approach safely without jeopardizing more people,” said Geyer.
“There's no firefighting gear you can wear to approach a fire that intense. For our own safety, we had to make the judgement on not to run in there and risk any further loss of life which certainly would've been the case in this incident.”
The fire chief said fuel spilled in the ditch up to about 100 metres from the vehicle and about 50-100 metres into the adjacent forest.
“With the weather conditions we've had recently, fortunately, we got the fire under control and it didn't spread beyond that area,” said Geyer.
The rollover closed the highway from Castle Junction to Vermillion Crossing to reopen the next morning (July 20). Nightly construction on Highway 1 was suspended to serve as a detour for traffic while emergency services attended the scene.
RCMP said the investigation is still ongoing.
It is not clear whether any environmental cleanup is planned in response to the fuel spillage. The Outlook reached out to Parks Canada for more information and this story will be updated.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
