VANCOUVER – City of Vancouver officials were trying to determine Tuesday just what was in a mystery underground vault in the crippled Electra Building, the former head office of BC Hydro.
The sealed vault was punctured last week by Surrey-based True North Concrete Lifting, which poured 700 litres of expanding foam into the hole, generating heat that triggered an underground fire.
There were concerns that the vault, which is under the plaza of the downtown Vancouver building, could have held PCBs used in cooling transformers at Hydro’s adjacent Dal Grauer substation, or other materials.
City officials were having trouble identifying what was in the vault because there is no apparent access to it. But health authorities said they had no indication so far of anything that could lead to serious health effects, either short- or long-term.
The uncertainty means residents and business owners in the Electra will likely have to wait another two days or more to move back in.
The city said it had confirmed that True North had neither a valid business licence nor a permit for the work it was doing. But whether True North needed a permit was still under investigation, deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston said.
The old Hydro head office, built in the 1950s, was sold and converted to a condominium tower about a decade ago.
City manager Penny Ballem said she had asked BC Hydro executives for assistance as early as Sunday, and they had sent over thousands of pages of documents. But they did not provide quick answers.
“We know that the contractor drilled down into the vault and the foam went in there,” Ballem said.
“Everybody is aware of the possibilities and the kinds of things we should be looking for in an old Hydro building. [But] we do not have all the information about what was or is still in that vault. … [Hydro is] trying to track down people who may be able to give us more information.
“Frankly, we don’t have the time to deal with 10,000 pages. We need help now,” Ballem said.
A call to True North Concrete Lifting was not returned and attempts to reach the company’s president, Calvin Warkentin, were unsuccessful. However, the company is listed as a member of the Better Business Bureau, where it has an A+ rating. The BBB shows the company has been in operation since 1988, and has also done business under the names Silver Eagle Construction Ltd. and True North Restorations.
The Vancouver Sun’s calls to BC Hydro were not immediately returned.
Ballem later forwarded an e-mail from Johnston saying Hydro had tracked down a retired employee who “confirmed that everything was cleaned out of the building and vaults before the transfer.”
But the city was wary of the possibility that whatever might have been in the vault was affected by the intense heat of the chemical reaction.
“We don’t know, and we’re doing everything we can to keep people safe,” Ballem said. “If people have information, they should contact us.”
She said PHH ARC Environmental, a company hired by the building’s strata council, was testing for everything, including PCBs.
The strata council apparently did not know the vault existed.
Will Johnston, the city’s chief building official, said drawings given to the city were vague about what was under the plaza.
“We don’t know what was down there,” Johnston said. “We have a lot of material from BC Hydro and we are looking at it to determine what is supposed to be there.”
Peter Morgan, who owns a commercial unit in the Electra Building and is a former president of the strata council, said no one was aware of the vault. He said there is no access to the sealed room from within the Electra and it wasn’t until the current strata council president, John Davies, noticed the contractor had spent hours pouring foam that it became clear workers had punched into an underground storage area.
Morgan said there is no proof that PCBs were stored anywhere in the building and he was worried that such talk could keep the residents and business owners out of their building for months.
PHH ARC part-owner Steve Wilk said an isocyanate-based polyurethane foam had been poured into the vault. He said the foam created gases and vapours including “carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrogen cyanide, the isocyanate material, nitrogen dioxide.” He said he had a team of four specialists working on the case.
Sadhu Johnston said it might be another two days or more before residents can move back in. He said PHH ARC was testing for chemical residue to the level of parts per billion. Once it gives the go-ahead, the city will still need the approval of Vancouver Coastal Health before allowing residents back in.
The incident forced the evacuation of 242 residential units and 205 commercial units. It has reshaped traffic in the downtown core as the city has shut down Nelson Street between Hornby and Burrard.
Some strata unit owners were angered by the slow pace, and wondered why businesses operating out of the Electra were not getting as much help as is being offered to residents.
Health officials Go to the chemical compounds identified so far would not lead to serious health problems.
“At this point, while we are awaiting the test results out of an abundance of caution, we aren’t anticipating serious health effects for anyone either in the short or long term,” said Dr. Reka Gustafson, a communicable diseases specialist with Vancouver Coastal Health.
“There certainly are people who have had a fair amount of sore throats and nausea and malaise and they have been assessed,” Gustafson said. “We are tracking those initial assessments and getting a sense whether or not there is something we aren’t anticipating.”
jefflee@vancouversun.com
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