Shortly after midnight on September 16, during a violent overnight storm, lightning struck a corn-based ethanol storage tank at Greenfield Global’s plant on Bloomfield Road in Chatham. The fire burned for about five hours before it was put out just before 8 a.m., according to CBC News. Nobody was hurt, and the company said in its facility updates that damage was isolated to the storage tank farm and would not affect distillation.

The response was large. Around 95 people were on scene, including Chatham-Kent firefighters, St. Clair Township crews and industrial fire teams from Borouge International (formerly NOVA Chemicals) and Shell, who brought specialized foam, as the Petrolia Lambton Independent reported. Two days later, remediation expanded into the Thames River after some firefighting foam travelled beyond the site boundary, according to CBC News.

One detail stood out. St. Clair firefighters flew a drone to monitor tank temperatures in real time, which helped guide suppression and keep crews safe. Heat data, in other words, was central to the response. The question for tank-farm operators is whether that data is available from the first minute, or only after mutual aid arrives.

Why Are Tank Farms Hard to Watch?

Storage tank farms at refineries, terminals, ethanol plants and pipeline facilities are large, spread out and lightly staffed, especially overnight. Tanks block sight lines. Dikes and berms create hidden areas. Weather, steam and darkness hide early warning signs.

Lightning is just one ignition source. Others include seal failures, overfilling, hot work, static discharge and vandalism. In each case, the first minutes decide whether you are dealing with a contained rim fire or a full-surface fire that needs foam from two neighbouring companies.

For operators like Imperial Oil, Suncor, Enbridge terminals and the many mid-size fuel and chemical storage sites across Sarnia-Lambton, Hamilton and the GTA, the cost of a tank fire includes lost product, cleanup, environmental remediation, regulatory scrutiny, business interruption and community trust.

How Does Thermal CCTV for Ontario Tank Farms Help Detect Fire Sooner?

Thermal cameras see heat, not light. They work in total darkness, through light smoke and in rain, and they can be set to alarm when any point in their view crosses a temperature threshold or rises abnormally fast.

Used well, thermal CCTV for Ontario tank farms adds three things that conventional cameras cannot.

Early warning across the whole farm. Radiometric thermal cameras, which measure actual temperatures rather than just showing hot and cold, can watch tank roofs, rim seals, pumps, manifolds and loading racks continuously. A hot spot developing at a seal or pump can trigger an alarm before visible flame appears.

Verified alarms for the control room. When a lightning detector, flame detector or gas sensor trips, operators need to know instantly whether it is real. A paired thermal and visible camera view answers that in seconds, and tells the shift supervisor exactly which tank is involved.

Live situational awareness for responders. The drone in Chatham gave firefighters temperature data on the tanks. Fixed thermal cameras can provide the same picture from minute one, shared with incident command on a tablet, and kept running through the night without a pilot.

What About Perimeter, Runoff and Environmental Monitoring?

Fire is not the only risk a tank-farm camera system should cover.

Perimeter security. Tank farms attract trespassers, metal thieves and occasionally activists. Analytics-enabled thermal cameras on the fence line detect people in the dark long before they reach a valve or ladder.

Dike and drainage views. In Chatham, foam leaving the site became a river remediation project. Fixed cameras aimed at containment dikes, drainage outfalls and nearby ditches let operators see whether firefighting water and foam are being held on site, and document the response for the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Operational oversight. The same system can watch truck and rail loading racks for overfill events, hose disconnects and unsafe practices. That improves safety and supports training for operators and drivers.

How Does Video Help After the Fire Is Out?

Greenfield said it would carry out a full investigation once cleanup was complete. Recorded thermal and visible footage, with accurate timestamps, makes that investigation faster and more reliable. It shows when heat first appeared, how the fire developed, how long detection and response took, and what happened to runoff.

That record supports insurance claims, regulatory reporting and, above all, the lessons that keep the next incident smaller. It also gives operators confidence that their emergency plans work as designed, or shows precisely where they did not.

What Does a Practical Tank Farm Camera Layout Look Like?

For a mid-size storage terminal with 10 to 20 tanks, a 32- to 64-camera design commonly includes:

• Radiometric thermal cameras on elevated mounts covering every tank roof and rim seal.

• Dual thermal and visible PTZ cameras for verification and zoom-in during alarms.

• Fixed cameras on pumps, manifolds, and truck and rail loading racks.

• Thermal analytics cameras along the perimeter fence.

• Cameras on dikes, drainage points and outfalls.

• Hazardous-location rated housings wherever equipment sits in classified areas.

All of it should feed an industrial NVR platform integrated with the control room, with alarms tied into existing fire and gas systems.

If you are reviewing fire detection and security at a tank farm or fuel terminal, ForceVision can help you map coverage against your actual risk points. We work with energy and industrial sites across Southern Ontario, from Hamilton to the Sarnia-Lambton corridor.

The Takeaway

Ask your control room one question: if a tank caught fire at 12:15 a.m. tonight, how many minutes would pass before someone on shift saw it, and could they tell responders exactly where the heat was? If the honest answer depends on a neighbour’s call or a drone arriving later, it is time to evaluate thermal CCTV for Ontario tank farms.

FAQ

Q: Can thermal cameras replace flame and gas detectors at a tank farm?
A: No. Thermal CCTV complements certified fire and gas detection by giving early hot-spot alerts and fast visual verification. It should be integrated with, not substituted for, required detection systems.

Q: Do thermal cameras work at night and in bad weather?
A: Yes. Thermal imaging detects heat rather than light, so it works in darkness and through light smoke and rain, though heavy fog and precipitation reduce range.

Q: Can cameras help with environmental compliance after a fire?
A: Yes. Cameras on dikes and drainage points document whether runoff and foam were contained, which supports reporting to regulators and post-incident reviews.

Q: Are special cameras required in hazardous areas?
A: Equipment in classified hazardous locations must be rated for that classification. Rated housings and cameras are available and should be specified by qualified designers.