680NEWS

A Canadian Pacific train skidded off the tracks on Nov. 10, 1979, spewing yellow clouds of deadly chlorine gas into the air.

The 90-ton tanker hauling chlorine had been ripped open. A fireball shot up into the sky, which could be seen as far away as Kingston, Ont.

The accident triggered the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history.

CHFI morning show co-host Mike Cooper and his family lived just off Mavis Road at the time and told 680News he thought it was some kind of attack.

"We could smell the chlorine immediately, I mean we were that close, so we could smell the gas. So we knew there was trouble, we didn't know what it was, we just knew that we were leaving. My mother lived in Hamilton, we packed up what we could," Cooper said.

A quarter of a million Mississauga residents were ordered to leave for six days.

Miraculously, everyone survived and there were no injuries.

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion told Global News that it was a miracle no one was hurt. "I'm describing this [as a] Mississauga miracle, even though it was a disaster," McCallion said.