The Night Oakville Was Evacuated

A week before Christmas in 1992, the people of Oakville were getting ready for the holidays.

In just a few hours, hundreds would be forced to leave their homes due to one of the worst railway accidents in the area’s history.

At around 9 p. m. on Friday, December 18, a CN freight train carrying hazardous chemicals rolled through Newton and got close to Oakville. An axle on the locomotive started to fail and broke shortly after passing through the community.

Twenty-nine cars went off the tracks. Some were damaged and began leaking chemicals into the snow.

The cargo included ethylene oxide, vinyl chloride, sulfuric acid, and acetic anhydride. The risk of toxic fumes reaching nearby residents created a quick and alarming situation.

A sound in the night

Dorinda Holmes was folding laundry downstairs when she heard the derailment.

“I could hear this loud banging, and I thought, ‘Oh, it must be them just shunting the cars around,’” Holmes recalled. “I didn’t think anything of it.”

Her husband, Murray Holmes, was working a shift at Mc Cain Foods in Portage la Prairie when he started hearing news about a derailment.

When he got back to Oakville, he saw that emergency vehicles filled the area around the village’s skating rinks with bright lights everywhere.

“It was all lit up down there just like daylight with vehicles,” he said. “You’d think there was a tournament and a bonspiel going on and a party in the parking lot because there were lights everywhere, emergency vehicles.”

The activity made it clear something serious had occurred; however, no one had told his family they needed to leave yet.

“Nobody seemed to be stopping us and saying that we had to get out of town,” Holmes remembered. “So we went home and went to bed.”

 

Christmas away from home

The next afternoon, emergency officials began evacuating about 410 residents from Oakville.

The Holmes family grabbed some clothes and their cat before heading over to Dorinda’s parents’ house in Portage for Christmas. Other residents found shelter with family or friends or stayed at local hotels and motels.

Christmas trees and presents were left behind while families anxiously awaited news about returning home.

Residents could go back briefly to grab gifts and other belongings but faced uncertainty about when they could return permanently or what their homes would look like upon return.

The freezing temperatures posed both benefits and challenges for crews working at the site. Cold weather kept some chemicals from boiling but thickened others making them harder to recover.

There was also worry over what might happen if different chemicals mixed together. In some situations, responders lacked information since those substances had never combined under such circumstances.

 

Related stories:

Oakville students welcomed in Portage

The derailment also affected classes for kids attending Oakville School.

The students spent nearly a week going to school in Portage where eight-year-old Jillian Holmes found an unexpected perk.
“One of them being the hot lunch program, and we sure didn’t have that at Oakville School,” she recalled. “I think a lot of kids got over being in different surroundings pretty fast when they heard that we had a hot lunch program.”
It provided a brief sense of normalcy during an unusual Christmas season for Oakville.

Finally returning home

Residents were allowed back on Sunday January 10 , 1993 , after spending more than three weeks away.

The coffee shop turned into a gathering spot as neighbors came together again sharing stories about where they’d stayed during evacuation.

No deaths or injuries occurred due too this derailment. While frightening & uncertain , this event showcased how strong & supportive this community can be.

This incident interrupted Christmas , emptied out an entire community & left many wondering whether they’d even have homes waiting upon return.

More than thirty years later , it’s still one story that has shaped this region’s history.

This article is part of CFRY’s celebration marking seventy years highlighting various stories we’ve shared throughout time.

Source link