Fire triggers ongoing system outage at Alberta Forestry Building in Edmonton

A fire at the Alberta Forestry Building in Edmonton this summer has resulted in a system outage that Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) said is affecting a “number of internal and shared systems” at the ministry.

“Due to a fire in the Forestry Building, the information centre will be operating remotely and will not be able to answer telephones directly,” said a statement on the ministry’s website.

People looking to contact the ministry are encouraged to send an email to AEP.Info-Centre@gov.ab.ca or to leave a voicemail, which the ministry said will receive a response within one working day.

Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said crews were called to the fire shortly after 10 p.m. on July 30.

Spokesperson Maya Filipovic said the fire happened on the top floor mechanical area, inside a small room of the 11-storey high-rise.

“The room was completely involved when fire crews gained access,” she said in an email Tuesday morning.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The room was completely involved when fire crews gained access," she said in an email Tuesday morning.

The cause of the fire was due to an electrical malfunction which originated in an electrical extension cord, Filipovic said. Damage is estimated at $55,000.

The Government of Alberta said 464 government employees across five ministries have been displaced by the fire.

The Alberta Forestry Building is located at 9920 – 108 St. On Aug. 1, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) posted that the organization and AEP had “some shared systems that require Government of Alberta credentials (e.g. GLIMPS, APviewer)” that were offline.

“The AEP is working to resolve the issue, but it may be several days before all AER/AEP shared systems are fully restored and operational,” the AER said.

On Aug. 3, the AER provided an update and said it was “unable to process or make decisions on submitted public lands applications.”

“Industry is also unable to submit new public lands applications or find out about the status of current public lands dispositions and submitted applications.”

On Aug. 10, the AER provided another update in which it said it would be “manually processing applications for temporary field authorizations, seismic exploration permits and formal land disposition and issuing temporary approvals by email until the systems are restored.”

“This process will have no impact on confidentiality,” the AER said.