Charges have now been laid in a hazardous materials incident in southeast Calgary last week that shut down the area to residents and business owners.
Last Tuesday, Calgary police responded to reports of a suspicious package in the southeast Manchester Industrial area. After initial investigation, it was determined the substance was picric acid, a highly volatile substance when stored in a dry state.
On Wednesday, controlled detonations of the substance were done on site. Later, it was determined that the goods could be transported safely to another area to continue the detonations.
Calgary police said that a local moving company had been contracted to dispose of several substances that were mislabeled before transport. Those materials sat for 10 days, over which time police said the substance became unstable.
New information released Tuesday indicates that the police believe the president of the company who hired the moving company was aware of the true contents of the shipment but didn’t disclose it to them.
Due to this, police have charged Christine Jacqueline Teschl, 59, with one count of criminal negligence in relation to the incident.
“We do not believe there was intent to harm members of the public, but the decisions made in relation to this material ultimately put our community and our emergency services personnel at significant risk,” said Staff Sgt. Ray Kelly with the Calgary Police Service General Investigations Unit.
“It took expertise and collaboration across multiple agencies to ensure no one was hurt, and we continue to be grateful to our members and our agency partners for ensuring this incident was safely resolved.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek responded on Tuesday to questions about the incident, but said she couldn’t comment on specific details.
“I’m very grateful to Calgary Police Service and Calgary Fire Department and the folks at Calgary Emergency Management Agency for pulling together in such an amazing way and making sure that everyone was kept out of harm’s way when we had the volatility of chemicals that were located in Manchester last week,” the mayor said.
