About 200 people were evacuated from a Burnaby apartment tower in the early hours of Wednesday morning and 50 spent the rest of the night at a local recreation centre after a burst water pipe knocked out power to the building.
Burnaby firefighters were called to Erickson Tower at 9541 Cameron St. for an alarm activation just after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
“(They) found that it was actually a mass flood caused by the burst pipe,” fire Chief Joe Robertson told the NOW. “The flooding appeared to originate on the 11th floor and it extended all the way to the ground floor.”
Water flooded the electrical vault, knocking out power, the building’s fire protection system and the elevator.
Emergency services personnel helped evacuate the 20-storey building.
Initially some residents refused to leave, according to Robertson, but police eventually convinced everyone to go.
Paramedics had to use chair cots to help some people down the stairs, Robertson said.
Emergency social services personnel were on hand to open up the Cameron Recreation Centre as a comfort centre.
“There was a broad range of people there from seniors to children,” City of Burnaby emergency program coordinator Charmaigne Pflugrath said.
While 50 people did end up staying the night, she said the evacuees were encouraged to stay with family and friends, and pets were not allowed.
“Because it was not an emergency or disaster that is covered by emergency support services through the emergency program act because it was a failure of infrastructure within a building, people were advised to reach out to friends and family or to refer to their insurance for assistance,” Pflugrath said. “The comfort centre was merely opened so that they had a safe place to go while they were looking for friends and family to stay with or to contact their insurance.”
Pets are not allowed at Burnaby recreation complexes even for emergency situations, Pflugrath said.
Chris, who lives on the 16th floor and didn’t want his last name used, initially headed to the rec centre with his cat because he had left his car keys in his apartment, but emergency services personnel worked out a system for escorting residents to their apartments floor by floor to retrieve necessities, he said.
“The emergency services people, they did a really decent job,” he said.
Chris ended up going to Tsawwassen to stay with his sister after retrieving his keys.
Kris Power, who lives on the 17th floor, stayed with his parents in Surrey.
He had ignored the first alarm, he said, but got out after a second one 15 minutes later.
“The fire crew actually came to each door and told everyone that we had to get evacuated,” he said.
Wayne and Felice Chen, who live on the third floor, went to the rec centre first and then arranged to stay with friends in Coquitlam.
Residents were allowed to return to the building by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Restoration crews were still on site Wednesday evening.
