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story Mike Beggs Where were you at the time of the Train Derailment? That’s a question any Mississaugan of long standing can answer post haste. Because 30 years later, the derailment of those 23 CPR tank cars, three explosions, and week-long evacuation remains the seminal event in the history of  Canada’s sixth-largest city. Suddenly, this fledgling municipality could be found on news reports, and front pages around the globe. “It did put Mississauga on the world map,” says Gord Bentley, chief of Fire and Emergency Services at the time. “We moved about 217,000 residents. It was done quite successfully, really.” It was hitting midnight on November 10, 1979 when 23 of the 106 tank cars on that freight train went off the rails at the Mavis Road crossing – several of them carrying dangerous chemicals, including chlorine and propane gas. What followed was a series of three spectacular explosions – one of them sending flames six stories high – ripping tank cars into pieces, and scattering their debris up to a mile away. Relatively new at the position of Chief, Bentley recalls that when he reached the command post on Mavis Road, “What I saw was a massive fire. All I could see was rail cars piled up. It looked like 10 or 12, but it turned out to be 23.” Firefighters battled flames through the night. But when a tank car carrying 90 tons of toxic chlorine began to leak, it prompted the wholesale evacuation of the city. “Some people did choose to stay in their houses and keep the windows closed, However, if they did go out, they weren’t allowed back in past the check points,” Bentley relates. The largest peacetime evacuation in North American history, it served to galvanize the reputation of rookie Mayor Hazel McCallion – now in her twelfth term of office. Going without sleep for three days (and operating on a badly sprained ankle by the end of it), the diminutive Mayor met constantly with Fire and Emergency officers, and sure-handedly saw her city through the crisis – which she calls the Mississauga Miracle. Her “toughest decision” was to evacuate Mississauga Hospital – a four-hour process with more than 60 ambulances, transferring 900 patients to safer environs. “It was her first term of office. And the way she handled it so professionally, it put her on the map. She was in charge from Day 1,” says The Mississauga News reporter John Stewart. “It was the coronation of Hazel McCallion. She was acclaimed the next time.” Then working for the rival Mississauga Times, Stewart was watching a football game at his parents’ home in London when a news report came on at halftime about the disaster. He hurried straight back to Mississauga. “When everybody was leaving town, I was going back,” he remembers. “The next morning I went for a jog in Rattray Marsh and it was so quiet. That’s the thing that struck me more than anything else – to hear the city quiet. It was very surrealistic.” While he was still working out of The Times’ office, the paper’s composing room had been moved temporarily to Oakville. Stewart recalls the Media Centre, set up near the Derailment site, being packed with reporters from across North America. “It was bizarre being there and seeing Irv Weinstein  (the Buffalo TV newscaster famous for chasing fires),” he adds. “That’s how we knew it was really serious.” Hair stylist Gail Woolley was babysitting at the time of the Derailment. Her family headed off to Collingwood the next day. “I remember how dull it was in the morning – (so) grey,” she says.”And the sirens – that awful noise – they went on and on.” Bentley, 79. has delivered over 100 lectures on the Derailment over the years. “We were given keys to go feed the dog, or cat,” he muses. “That was something – they would turn their keys over to the Fire Department.”  GL

Above The fire rages after midnight in November 1979 when 23 of 106 tank cars went off the rails at the Mavis Road crossing PHOTOS: The Mississauga News staff photobraphers A very unusual view of Mississauga due to the emergency evacuation The modern-day plaque commemorates the spot