CLEVELAND -- Acts of nature have caused headaches at gas stations in Ohio and Ontario. BP temporarily closed 11 Cleveland-area gas stations Tuesday for inspection after a snow-laden roof at one of the station collapsed Monday, injuring a Cleveland man, reported The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
And in Canada, a recent blaze at one of its refineries resulted in gasoline shortages at 75 of Imperial Oil Ltd.'s Esso stations Tuesday, said the Canadian Press.
Each of the 11 BP stations had canopies built the same way as the station where Weldon Willis was [image-nocss] injured when the roof collapsed while he pumped his gas, BP spokesperson Scott Dean told the newspaper. We are inspecting all 11 of them, removing the excessive ice and snow," he said. "We've reopened four of them by late afternoon and are working on the rest. I don't recall anything like this happening before, but we are certainly going to investigate and prevent it from happening again."
Case Western Reserve University Professor Art Huckelbridge said he thinks the flat roof design is inherently flawed, added a report by WKYC-TV. That basically puts more weight in the middle of the structure, which makes it sag even more so it can hold even more water. Pretty soon it gets to where it can't sustain it any more and down it goes, he told the news outlet.
Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago wants the city to crack down on poor canopy designs, the report said. He wants gas companies to start using sloped roof designs. The recent incident at the BP station is personal for Santiago. My sister had just pulled away last night when she got gas, he told the TV station. We live right across the street and the roof collapsed just as she pulled away. It's a miracle she wasn't killed.
Santiago plans to introduce legislation that would mandate tighter inspections of all gas station canopies in Cleveland. He understands that a flat roof may be cheaper for gas stations to build. But Councilman Santiago believes that safety, not a budget, should have priority.
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Meanwhile, in Canada, Imperial Oil has called on the Ontario public not to engage in panic buying after a recent blaze at one of its refineries resulted in shortages at 75 of the company's 400 stations.
"If people go crazy into panic buying, it could look very ugly by the end of the week," Robert Theberge, a spokesperson for Imperial, said Tuesday. "They will put a lot of stress into an already overstressed situation."
He added that the supply problem should be corrected by the middle of next week.
Imperial69.6% owned by Exxon Mobil Corp.is the largest petroleum supplier to the Ontario market, but a February 15 fire at its Nanticoke refinery has cut its daily gasoline production by about half. Imperial Oil's second Ontario refinery, in Sarnia, also provides gasoline to Imperial's own 400 Esso stations, as well as Canadian Tire stations and a number of independent companies.
The shortage has forced Canadian Tire, which relies on Imperial for its supply, to temporarily close 10 gas bars, a spokesperson for Canadian Tire said. "Obviously we're taking it hour by hour," Lisa Gibson told CP. "At this point it is too early to determine what the impact will be."
Imperial is working to ensure the shortages will rotate across the province. "There are some service stations that will, from time to time, be without product for a few hours in the next 10 days," Theberge said.
To minimize inconvenience to customers, Esso stations are under orders to sell premium fuel at the price of regular when regular supplies run out, and the company is asking consumers not to rush out to fill their tanks en masse. "We're not in a desperate mode," Theberge said, noting there are about 2,000 stations across Ontario operated by various companies.
Theberge denied recent gas price jumps were linked to the shortages.
"We do regret the inconvenience it's creating," Theberge said, noting the fire at Nanticoke was one of several events squeezing Imperial's fuel supply. They include the CN Rail strike, which has kept Imperial Oil trucks busy and unavailable to help transport fuel, along with cold weather which has made it difficult to ship fuel from the United States.
Theberge described the Nanticoke blaze as "the straw that broke the camel's back."
The day after the fire, which was put out after two hours and caused no injuries, a company spokesperson said the refinery would not take in new crude oil to process until it had assessed the full extent of the damage, as well as the cause of the fire.
Theberge said Imperial's competitors have said they can help meet demand. An official with Suncor Energy Inc. said its Sunoco stations were operating normally but wholesale operations are busy. "There is a lot of activity at our terminals," Patricia Anderson, director of government relations and communications for Suncor, told CP.
A spokesperson for Shell Canada also noted the market for gasoline is tight, with the CN strike and the cold weather. "We're seeing increased demand at our terminals right now and are working hard to manage that demand," Shell's John Peck told CP. Asked if this could increase prices, Peck said prices are affected by demand at the local level, and "a supply issue could have some effect on prices."
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