Community Connect brings SDFES and Evonik together

MORRISBURG – Community Connect and the information gathered through the portal provides an invaluable resource to firefighters responding to emergencies.

First made available to the community at large late last year, South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services officials have recently been working together with Evonik officials to get all the important information firefighters should have while responding to any emergency on site into the portal making it available to the responders the moment they are called to the site.

In recent weeks, firefighters from all three SDFES stations were at Evonik to familiarize themselves with the site and learn about the chemicals and processes that take place there.

“This is one of the most complex sites that we have in South Dundas,” said Jeremy Alldred-Hughes, SDFES Fire Chief.

For that reason, it is the first local industry to join Community Connect, to go through the pre-planning process and to welcome the firefighters to the site for training.

Given the opportunity to improve safety at their Morrisburg site, Evonik was eager to take advantage of that opportunity.

“It benefits us, you coming to train here,” Cat Hunter, site safety and security officer told the dozen firefighters from the Morrisburg station on site Monday evening.

She presented an overview of the site and the processing that takes place there.

Firefighters learned about the number of employees (32), steam generation, the number of boilers, and on site chemical locations and hazards involved in taking raw materials through a reactor and then blending the polymers into an oil additive used for viscosity improvement or pour point depressant.

As part of that presentation, Hunter addressed a 2020 workplace incident that injured a worker. Firefighters were assured that countermeasures and site upgrades have taken place to prevent it happening again.

“The more comfortable we are on site, the better and safer it will be when we respond to the site,” said one of the firefighters participating in the training.

To acknowledge and support the efforts of the local fire service Evonik donated $2,000 to SDFES.

“We appreciate that,” said Alldred-Hughes. “We also appreciate building this relationship together, planning and working together and continuing to collaborate.”