Saturday, July 5, 2008

Decaf system blows a gasket at city plant

By Dan Hilborn
Published Aug. 13, 2005


What turned out to be a minor industrial mishap brought out a phalanx of firefighters to the Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Co. plant in the Lake City industrial park during the Thursday morning rush hour.

Ben Hieltjes, vice-president of sales for the publicly listed company, said a quantity of superheated carbon particles used to extract the caffeine from coffee beans spilled onto the floor, causing the sprinkler system to engage and throwing a cloud of carbon dust into the air.

Earlier news reports that passengers had to be diverted from the nearby SkyTrain station turned out to be false, said Susan Danard, spokesperson for TransLink.

Burnaby firefighters were more concerned that a 12,000-litre tank of bleach inside the building may have been compromised, and so their hazardous materials response team was called out to investigate.

"I think it was more a matter of an ounce of precaution," said Dave Duck, a deputy fire chief with the Burnaby Fire Department. "We sent our guys in to do a visual inspection, and it turned out to be fine."

Up to 10 firefighting vehicles were on the scene at the height of the emergency, which was initially reported at 7:37 a.m., but the fire department was finished its work and the plant was back in full operation within two hours.

Most of the plant's 35 employees continued to work throughout the incident, Hieltjes said. The incident happened as the plant was being restarted after a routine shutdown, he added.

The coffee decaffeination plant was originally opened by Nabob Foods as part of its larger coffee packaging operation on the site in the mid-1980s. The operation was purchased by Kraft Foods in 1987. The coffee operation was subsequently rebranded and closed.

But the decaffeination plant was resold to a publicly listed private equity group.

Its products are now sold under a variety of brand names, ranging from small specialty house blends such as Kicking Horse Coffee to some of the biggest coffee purveyors in the world.

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