New Norcia: Residents woken up with warning to evacuate after fire in truck carting ammonium nitrate

The monks of New Norcia were in the middle of a nighttime vigil when they heard a “few rather alarming thuds” and were then told they had to evacuate after a roadtrain trailer containing ammonium nitrate caught fire overnight. About 100 residents in the only monastic town in the country were told to evacuate in text messages and by door-knocks about 10pm on Saturday night, warned there was a “direct threat” to the community. There were concerns that had the trailer exploded, the town — and its historical buildings — could have experienced a “significant impact”. “Specialist advice is there would have been damage to the townsite,” Department of Fire and Emergency Services district officer Leigh Bishop said. New Norcia Abbot John Herbert said he was in the middle of a prayer session called the Office of the Vigils in the chapel when they heard a “few rather alarming thuds”. “I actually thought, we’ve got a huge crane parked in one of our car parks that has broken down or something, so I thought ‘that’s them taking the crane away’,” he said. “When we finished prayers I got the notification from the shire to say what had happened and that we needed to evacuate.” Fr Herbert praised the work of the town’s fire chief Gavin Halligan, police and other volunteers and officials who helped everyone evacuate from the “complex site” in good time. “There’s residential homes, the monastery, the guest home, the heritage buildings. We had to go right across the whole site to get everyone out and we managed to do that,” he said. “The police were excellent, the evacuation personnel were excellent and so were the other emergency services. “We then had to drive 2km north to be safe in case there was a major explosion, and they kept us informed.” Many of those who evacuated waited for about five hours outside the exclusion zone on the side of Great Northern Highway until it was deemed safe to return about 2.45am. Among those who evacuated were two monks in their 80s, who Fr Herbert said “did not panic”. “That must’ve been difficult for them, but they kept calm,” he said. Fr Herbert, who has lived at New Norcia for 28 years, said he has never experienced an incident where the whole site had to evacuate. He noted the incident happened on the New Norcia Bypass — a road the community rallied for for 15 years — adding “that truck would have come right through the middle of the village in the past”. He said the monks and village guests were at the first prayer at 6am despite the late night. “I thought ‘despite that, they were there’. But then I thought, ‘maybe because of that, they were there’,” he said. “It would have been easier to cancel prayers, but we chose to rock up as usual.” In a message to the community, Fr Herbert said: “On behalf of the Benedictine Community, I would like to thank everyone involved in attending to the serious incident on the New Norcia Bypass last night. “The evacuation team, the police, the emergency services and all who offered assistance, demonstrated emergency service at the highest level. “We are blessed to have such proficient and professional personnel in our district – we are truly grateful. “Thanks also to everyone who was in residence – your cooperation was much appreciated.” Another New Norcia resident, Kyle, said he received a text message about 9.30pm to evacuate as authorities door-knocked and told people to get out. “When you’re waking up out of nowhere and told to evacuate, it was pretty scary I would say,” he said. “I had to take the dogs out and everything, we just shoved them in the car and took off.” “We were told to stay out on the highway on the side of the road.” Kyle said he had a family friend in Moora so went to stay there for the night. The immediate threat to the community was over by 3am, when the evacuation centre in Bindoon was closed. Residents had returned to the town on Sunday morning. Firefighters, ChemCentre and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation’s Pollution Response Unit were responding late into the night and early Sunday morning. DFES’ Mr Bishop said the driver of the roadtrain recognised that one of the trailers was impacted by fire and tried unsuccessfully to put the blaze out. They then uncoupled the trailer and drove the truck away from the impacted trailer. “Full kudos to the driver, understanding he would have the full knowledge of the product he was transporting,” he said. “Absolute full kudos to him to keep a cool head and decouple that trailer and transport the other two trailers and most importantly himself away from the site.” A Hazmat warning was lifted on Sunday morning and people in and around the town were told it was safe to return home. A number of roads are still closed, including the New Norcia Bypass — Great Northern Highway between New Norcia Road north and New Norcia Road south. Calingiri-New Norcia Road is closed from Great Northern Highway to Carani West Road. Oversize permit vehicles cannot access the area. There are staging areas at Wubin and Muchea road train assembly areas until the area reopens.