The ensuing wildfire killed at least two individuals, injured others, and resulted in the near complete destruction of the village and surrounding areas.
A bid to certify a class-action lawsuit that alleges a wildfire that destroyed much of Lytton in 2021 was caused by a train got under way in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday.
Lawyers for Christopher O’Connor and Jordan Spinks, the two representative plaintiffs in the case, argued in court that the blaze was ignited as a result of a coal train owned by Canadian Pacific Railway passing through the village on June 30, 2021.
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The ensuing wildfire killed at least two individuals, injured others, and resulted in the near complete destruction of the village and surrounding areas. It happened during a heat wave in which temperatures soared to a national record 49.6 degrees C.
Spinks is a member of the Kanaka Bar Indian Band and states in the notice of civil claim that he witnessed smoke and flames on CN Rail’s right of way, at or near CN Rail’s bridge that crosses the Fraser River.
He had just finished his shift as a care aide at an assisted-living facility and lost his job as a result of the fire, says the lawsuit.
O’Connor, a resident of Lytton, lost his home in the fire and had his vehicle damaged.
The legal action is being brought on behalf of all individuals or their estates who suffered personal injury or death in the fire and all individuals who were displaced by the fire or who suffered property losses.
The railway companies that are defendants in the case deny any responsibility for the blaze, and according to the plaintiffs are pointing to a report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada that concluded there was no link between train operations and the fire.
But Tony Vecchio, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, argued in court that the report was deficient in a number of respects and should not be relied upon.
“They didn’t have any basis to make this finding at all, on their own evidence,” Vecchio told B.C. Supreme Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson.
He pointed to several of what he called errors in the report, including the number of railway cars on the train, and said there was a failure to interview a number of witnesses.
That argument resonated with Tricia Thorpe, who lost her home, her farm and her animals in the Lytton fire.
She travelled to Vancouver on Monday because she said there had been a lack of information and transparency about the case and people wanted to know what was going on.
Regarding the questions about the TSB report, she said people affected by the fire would tend to agree with the assertions of the plaintiff’s lawyer.
“People need closure, and from a personal point of view, there were people lost, people have lost their homes,” Thorpe said outside court.
“The whole community was affected, not just the people that lost their homes. I don’t think there’s a single person in the Lytton area that hasn’t been affected by this. And it has physical and mental health issues involved with it. We need answers and we need to move forward and maybe this is a step to getting things to move forward.”
Thorpe, an electoral area director of the Thompson-Nicola regional district, said she was speaking as an individual citizen and not as a director. The court proceedings are expected to continue until Friday.
kfraser@postmedia.com
