A resident of a First Nations community in Sarnia filed an application Thursday asking the province to investigate an incident in which large flames billowed from an industrial plant for five hours.

Clouds of fire and steam towered over the Imperial Oil plant in Sarnia the night of Feb. 23, 2017. Equipment had malfunctioned, the company said at the time. The application filed to the Ontario Environmental Commissioner Thursday by Vanessa Gray of Aamjiwnaang First Nation alleges the company violated provincial emission laws.

“If Imperial is going to continue to put our lives, our health, at risk, then they need to be held accountable,” Gray said.

“This is my territory and I have the right to feel safe in my own environment.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, Gary Wheeler, would not say Thursday if an investigation was underway, but said the ministry was aware of the incident when it happened.

“Ministry staff are reviewing the company’s actions and are considering other compliance options, including a possible investigation that could lead to charges,” Wheeler said via email.

Spokesperson Jon Harding of Imperial Oil said the company wasn’t aware of Gray’s complaint but will co-operate with any investigation.

The application — filed with co-applicant Elaine MacDonald, a scientist with the environmental law charity Ecojustice — was submitted to Ontario environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe, who will forward it to the provincial environment ministry. The ministry then decides whether an investigation is needed.

An investigation by the Star, Global News, National Observer, the Michener Awards Foundation and journalism schools at Ryerson and Concordia universities revealed a troubling pattern of secrecy and potentially toxic leaks in the area known as Chemical Valley.

The investigation also raised questions about whether companies and the provincial government are properly warning residents of Sarnia and the Aamjiwnaang First Nation when potentially toxic substances — including benzene, known to cause cancer at high levels of long-term exposure — are leaked.

The filing alleges that Imperial committed two violations under Ontario law: one for emitting contaminants that caused an adverse effect; another for causing discomfort and loss of enjoyment of property.

The statute of limitations on such cases is two years. If the ministry decides to lay charges against Imperial and a court rules in the government’s favour, the company could be fined.

Since January 2013, four incidents in the Sarnia area have resulted in ministry charges. The joint investigation revealed 500 incident reports for spills and leaks in the area between 2014 and 2015.

The fire at Imperial on Feb. 23 erupted from the facility’s flares, generally used to burn off materials from the plant, at about 6:20 p.m., the company said in February.

The sight of a small flame atop a flare is common in the Chemical Valley. Fifty-seven industrial polluters within 25 kilometres of Sarnia are registered with the Canadian and U.S. governments.

Megan Hayden, who lives across the river in Port Huron, Mich., said noise from the plant made the windows in her home rattle. It sounded like a freighter going by, she said.

“It literally looked like Canada was on fire,” Hayden said last July.

Sarnia has a municipal warning system, but no alert was sent on Feb. 23, said Cal Gardner, Sarnia’s emergency management. Gardner said flaring is common and not considered an emergency. Information came instead from a notice posted by Imperial Oil to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Emergency Planning Facebook page at 7:11 p.m., along with a press release from Imperial.

Though Imperial gave the all-clear at about 8:30 that night, the flares continued for about three hours. Residents reported flares that were smaller, but still larger than normal, on and off for the next 10 days, according to Gray’s filing.

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Imperial and the ministry said at the time that air monitoring didn’t detect harmful levels of any potentially toxic substances.

However, the wind on Feb. 23 was blowing away from air monitors on Aamjiwnaang and though Imperial Oil hired a third-party company to test downwind, the equipment used wasn’t sensitive enough to know if emissions exceeded provincial air standards, Gray’s filing alleges.

The ministry said Imperial was flaring “volatile organic compounds,” which can include the carcinogen benzene, and sulphur compounds. The ministry said it didn’t do its own air monitoring at the time.

“That’s not OK,” MacDonald said. “You have to be there at the moment to collect the data to show that there’s actual violations occurring, if they’re occurring.”

One person complained to the Ministry of the Environment about a strong gasoline smell at 8:39 p.m., and the ministry noted a “slight odour” nearby soon after. Gray said she felt “burning” in her nose.

After Feb. 23, residents of Sarnia and Aamjiwnaang expressed frustration and concern over what they say is a lack of communication about industrial leaks and spills.

Another large flare was reported this week at the Suncor plant in Sarnia.

Community members were alerted through the Aamjiwnaang emergency planning Facebook page, which posted a notice three hours after the event started and a message Suncor posted to an industry spills phone line. The company also notified the ministry. The City of Sarnia didn’t send out an official alert, Gardner said.

Jennifer Johnson, a Suncor spokesperson, said the company was mostly flaring hydrogen, along with a small amount of hydrocarbons. The company is launching a full investigation into the event and will provide a report to the Ministry of the Environment about how it will prevent the situation from happening again, she said.

Questioned about the issue at Queen’s Park Thursday, Ontario Environment Minister Chris Ballard said he’d “make some specific inquiries” in his ministry.

“One of the things we heard was a need to better co-ordinate that information and I’ve instructed my officials to look into how we can do that,” he said.

With files from Carolyn Jarvis, Global News