Prior to the recent incident with Mayor Rob Ford’s football team, it appears the deadly Sunrise Propane explosion four years ago was the last time a TTC bus was used to transport — rather than temporarily house — individuals in an emergency situation.

The stark difference between the two incidents — a deadly explosion that sent thousands fleeing their homes, versus a dispute over a refereeing call — has people on the TTC’s board once again questioning the events at Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School last week.

“Whether this — an altercation between a ref and a coach — constituted a quote-unquote ‘emergency situation’ is questionable,” said TTC chair Karen Stintz. “In fact, I think there are questions all around here. The police are asking questions. The TTC is asking questions. And I am confident we will not see a repeat of the situation.”

Fire, police and ambulance crews regularly ask the TTC to dispatch shelter buses to crisis locations — fires, for example. But in almost every case, those buses act as a warm place for displaced residents to wait until they’re able to return home.

Almost never is the service used to move people.

The last time the TTC’s executive director of communications, Brad Ross, could pinpoint was on Aug. 10, 2008. On that day, a series of massive, early-morning explosions at the North York propane plant claimed the life of an employee and forced about 12,500 people from their homes. The TTC shuttled hundreds to an evacuation centre at York University.

Ross searched through incident reports he’d been sent as a member of senior management and consulted with the transit control office, which handles the shelter bus calls.

“If you’re asking how often do we … move people to another location, it is true to say that that does not occur very often,” Ross said. “Having said that, and as we noted in our protocol review issued yesterday, the TTC works with emergency services to comply with all requests; if we are asked to transport people, we will, of course, do that.”

This appears to have been the case on Nov. 1, when a Toronto Police sergeant made the decision to request a TTC shelter bus when tensions escalated between Ford’s Don Bosco Eagles and a rival high school team over a refereeing call. The Eagles were picked up at the Father Henry Carr football field and driven back to their school.

The police say the mayor did not ask for the bus. Ford did twice call TTC CEO Andy Byford’s cellphone to check on the status of the bus.

Councillor Maria Augimeri said she thinks there are facts missing in the story.

“In my opinion, the bus should not have been called. And my constituents are darn angry. I attended two community meetings last night, and the audience raised the issue and asked what I’m going to do about it.”

Augimeri, who sits on the transit commission board, plans to ask for a full briefing and protocol review at the next meeting in two weeks.

The Ward 9 councillor said she trusts the police. She wants to know if they faced pressure from the mayor to call a bus. Augimeri said that if the only other time a bus has been called to move people was the explosion — which occurred in her ward — then something doesn’t fit.

“(Sunrise was) a dire emergency. People don’t know what’s happening. There’s an inferno blasting at their front door and they needed a way to be evacuated,” she said.

Police initially said cold, wet weather was a factor in the football field call. A Catholic school board official also pointed to weather, not tensions, as the explanation for the bus. The students, said spokesperson John Yan, were “exemplary.”

Augimeri then asks why the players couldn’t wait in the “safe, warm” school. She also points out the student athletes had nothing to do with the dispute; it was the Henry Carr coach.

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The TTC says that, on average, it gets two shelter bus requests a week, although the majority of those take place during the colder winter months. Records show senior management was informed of 16 such requests since mid-April. Five involved a fire, eight gas leaks, “one stage collapse at Downsview Park,” a road closure/police investigation, and one “high school incident.”

Ross said it’s possible there are “a handful” of other incidents he may not have been aware of.

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