Mall roof collapse injures at least 4 in N. Ontario

TenPenny

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Jun 9, 2004
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Oh don't misunderstand, I'm not fluffing off what was done by any means. Just that when deaths are involved, if an engineer did sign a report stating something was safe and it wasn't, they have huge liability. Not to mention the architect of the design if that's found to have flaws.


There's no reason to believe that the engineers said something was safe when it wasn't. Unless you read the report, and understand it.

I haven't seen the report, so I can't say.
 

JLM

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Nov 27, 2008
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There's no reason to believe that the engineers said something was safe when it wasn't. Unless you read the report, and understand it.

I haven't seen the report, so I can't say.

Yeah, I doubt if the engineers are responsible for making sure routine maintenance is carried out. If I was an engineer, I'd make sure right beside my signature was an expiry date.
 

beaker

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Jun 11, 2012
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thepeacecountry
Is anyone else noting a sudden interest in roof repairs that seemed evidently necessary a couple years ago? Locally one Building Supply store has decided that all the pails obstruct customer flow through the store aisles. :)
 

lone wolf

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Nov 25, 2006
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Is anyone else noting a sudden interest in roof repairs that seemed evidently necessary a couple years ago? Locally one Building Supply store has decided that all the pails obstruct customer flow through the store aisles. :)
Roof repairs were an ongoing thing. I suspect the problem had more to do with structure than just the roof - based on experiencing some rides on the bouncing escalator and on photos of rusted columns, shifting brickwork and cracked penthouse flooring. That place has been doomed for years
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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After the fact, the problem was finally attributed to the wet Vancouver weather and with the roofs built flush with the top of the walls, allowed for water to leak down through the walls especially during periods of high winds, since then condos are now build with overhangs on the roofs. In California, where the weather is dry the same condos worked out all right. But the lesson was learned $millions too late.



One problem in legalese is that old term "caviat emptor".

Apparently the same basic condo designs are used across N America. The only other place I read about having similar problems is around Virginia where they have coincidently similar weather as the wet coast.
 

Locutus

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Jun 18, 2007
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Rescue team veterans from Haiti and September 11 turned back from helping in Elliot Lake mall disaster

As police and firefighters from across Ontario streamed into the site of the Elliot Lake mall collapse this week, arguably one of the most hardened rescue groups on the scene — veterans of 9/11, the Haiti Earthquake and the Costa Concordia sinking — were never even allowed past the police tape.

“We’ve been on standby since arriving, and if you’re a results-oriented person, the worst thing in the world is to be on standby,” John Green, chief of Special Operations for Ottawa-based International Rescue, told the Post Wednesday.

The group, an Ottawa-based rescue non-profit, was summoned to Elliot Lake by a call from a private citizen. The roof on the Algo Centre Mall caved in at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday; by 2:55 p.m., an Elliot Lake resident (“He’d heard about what we’d done in Haiti,” Mr. Green said) got the organization on the phone.

About 40 hours later, Mr. Green — along with six team members — pulled into the small Northern Ontario town in a specially outfitted fire truck, hauling a trailer packed with lifts, supports, concrete-cutting chainsaws, liquid nitrogen, concrete-cracking explosives and thermite charges.

Of course, by then, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour had barred access to the unstable structure, and the Toronto-based Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team had just informed a crowd of locals that it had called off rescue efforts.

“At 11 p.m. [Monday], they just came out and said, ‘go home, we don’t want you on scene,’ which was a little bit of a kick,” Mr. Green said. “We’ve been to over 30 of these and we’ve never been told to go home.


more


Rescue team veterans from Haiti and September 11 turned back from helping in Elliot Lake mall disaster | News | National Post
 

Ron in Regina

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Apr 9, 2008
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I find it so strange as I hear more and more about this goat rodeo.

I live out on the prairies, with many agricultural and industrial dealerships
close to my home. At work we rent mobile cranes often, and have wheel
loaders and a track-hoe and a bulldozer in the yard much of the time that
we can just go fire up when needed.

Hell, out here, most Farmers (or their neighbours) have the equipment
sitting in their quansets to drag an escalator out of a hole....and down
in the patch where I work, heavy equipment sits all over the place
whe not in use, and most people (many in most crowds) know how
to use them. Different worlds I guess.