Homeowner choking on diesel fumes from neighbouring taxi firm

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This article was published 28/12/2017 (3176 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At least once a week, Fred Mulder wakes up in bed unable to breathe, his home filled with the smell of diesel fuel.

The 64 year old claims that’s because the business next to him — Spring Taxi — is essentially poisoning him.

The company’s lot is beside his home on the 200 block of Dorothy Street. Against its back fence is a row of large, shuttle vans, some of which run on diesel fuel.

Every day, the drivers start one or two of the vans, letting them idle for about 20 minutes before taking off, Mulder said. Depending on the wind, the exhaust is sucked into his home through the furnace air-intake on the side of his house, he said.

That’s when he wakes up to find the home he’s lived in for 40 years filled with the smell of fuel.

“It’s like sucking down a diesel truck, sucking in the fumes. That’s exactly what it’s like. I wake up sometimes and it’s like I’m ready to black out. I can’t breathe. I have to open my door just to get air. Try doing that when it’s 40-below zero,” Mulder said.

 

 

In addition, Mulder suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease that leaves him progressively more short of breath as it worsens. He’s connected to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day.

The problems with Spring Taxi began three months ago.

For years, there were only cabs parked beside his home. During that time, he had always been on good terms with the owner and employees. Last year he even bought a Christmas present for one of their phone operators.

The first time he woke to the smell of diesel fumes in his home, Mulder said he raised the issue with the owner. He has continued to raise the issue with him, as well as with employees, on multiple occasions, but said nothing is being done.

In frustration, he tried reaching out to his city councillor, Mike Pagtakhan, but claimed his calls haven’t been returned. He’s also contacted the city, poison control, provincial politicians and the police.

“You let it go on, you let it go on, you let it go on, hoping things will change,” he said, before inhaling deep on the clear tube running around his face.

“I’m getting the total run around. No one is helping me. What am I supposed to do?”

Studies show the inhalation of diesel fumes profoundly impacts human health and can lead to carbon-monoxide poisoning. Mulder doesn’t have a carbon-monoxide detector in his home.

When he first approached the owner of Spring Taxi, he said it was agreed drivers would pull into the parking spots (instead of backing in) so the van’s exhaust pipes wouldn’t face his house. But that only lasted a few days before the company backed the vans in again, citing damages to the bumpers caused by drivers struggling with the new practice.

A spokesman for the company confirmed this.

“We tried turning the buses around, pulling them in instead of backing them up, but it’s more difficult for the drivers. I can show you the damages we had. Who’s going to pay for those?” Harry Singh asked.

“Put yourself in our situation. This is our property. It’s a commercial property. These are diesel vehicles. You have to idle them. Most of the time there’s only one or two buses. I understand his concern, but I don’t see what else I can do if he’s still complaining about the fumes. I can’t just park the buses on the road.”

Singh countered Mulder’s accusations by pointing out the homeowner refused the company’s offer to pay to raise his air intake. The company hoped that would stop fumes being sucked into the home.

Mulder said that wouldn’t change anything, since the fumes rise anyway. He’s adamant there’s a simpler solution: move the vans or park them facing the other way.

The situation is getting worse now that it’s winter because drivers aren’t just idling the vans to warm the engine, but also to warm the interior, Mulder said.

While he’s not sure what he can do, he is sure of one thing: despite feeling he’s being poisoned in his home, he refuses to be driven out of the house he’s lived in for the past 40 years.

“I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’m a fixture in this neighbourhood. But when I wake up and I can’t breathe…" he said, his voice trailing off.

"I’m just glad I wake up. I could die from that. As far as I’m concerned these people are killing me.”

Standing in his kitchen, he pulls on his long beard before pointing out the window, his finger extended to the trucks lined up beside his home.

“To me, that’s the wall of death,” he says.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe