Underground camera shows no Hydro materials under Electra

VANCOUVER – Vancouver city officials say a massive underground hole under the crippled Electra Building where expanding foam caught fire didn’t contain any materials stored in the former BC Hydro building.

Using an underground camera, the city’s engineering department discovered a dirt cavern as much as 12 feet deep that contained a pile of charred foam, which it says is likely the remains of material inserted into the area last week during a botched concrete-lifting operation by a Surrey-based company.

On Tuesday night City Manager Penny Ballem told The Vancouver Sun the private company had punctured a "vault" and inserted the foam, and that the city was trying to determine what was in it at the time.

But now the city is calling the area a "dirt space". It doesn’t know whether the space is man-made or caused by natural factors, but is planning on further examination with a laser to measure the cavity.

Until 1991 the Electra was the head office for BC Hydro. It sits next to the Dal Grauer Substation, which is a major electrical hub for downtown Vancouver. Ballem said BC Hydro supplied "thousands of pages" of documents about the building when she called for help on Sunday, and they had also talked to at least one former employee who insisted all the vaults in the building were empty when Hydro moved to its new head office on Dunsmuir St.

"Based on the camera inspection, crews are certain the dirt space under the walkway is empty other than the presence of the foam," the city said in a press release.

Calls to BC Hydro for comment have not been returned.

An environmental testing company hired by the building’s strata council, PHH ARC Environmental, is inside the building testing air quality and surfaces. It is expected to issue a preliminary report either today or tomorrow on whether residents in the 21-storey building can move in again.

The city will meet with residents and business owners at 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 969 Burrard Street. A media briefing will follow.

Meanwhile, The Vancouver Sun has received a number of emails from people who say they recall several vaults in the building while it was Hydro’s head office. One, Stan Hack, said his father was a manager of a Royal Bank branch on the bottom floor that had a vault.

Martin Eady, the director of corporate finance for the B.C. Securities Commission, said he spent many days in a massive underground vault in the building during a summer intern’s job in the payroll department.

"The guys used to joke they would send out search parties. It was a pretty spooky place. But it was just filled with files."

jefflee@vancouversun.com