The city of Thompson was briefly on disaster footing Tuesday when a fire broke out at the Inco nickel mine.
There were no injuries, workers were evacuated in time and the fire was put out in minutes, RCMP in Thompson said.
Minutes after the fire call, the disaster code was also cancelled, the hospital’s chief executive said.
“We did have a casualty alert but we cancelled it in about 20 minutes as there were no casualties,” Thompson General Hospital CEO Gloria King said.
The fire was accidental and only some of the 1,300 workers at the nickel mine had to leave the one building where the fire broke out.
“Fire started from a conveyor belt inside an above-ground building at the mine. The fire was contained within the building. The involved building was evacuated for safety reasons due to the smoke involved,” RCMP said in a statement late Tuesday afternoon.
The Vale Inco mine is made up of a mine, a smelter and a refinery. The complex produces 130 million pounds of nickel a year, a web posting said. No officials from the mine were available for comment.
The emergency footing is a standard precaution when something goes wrong that could affect hundreds of people, EMS staff said.
It means the hospital must prepare for major casualties, while fire and ambulance personnel join police at the scene.
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