It’s business as usual at the C.G. Brown Memorial Pool after a car crashed through the front wall of the building Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to the Kensington Avenue pool around 2 p.m. When they arrived on scene, they found a car lodged halfway into the facility’s laundry room.
“There was a person trapped and our guys managed to free her quite quickly, and by luck (there were) no serious injuries,” Burnaby fire Capt. Dave Younger told the NOW.
At the time of the crash the laundry room was empty and there were no pedestrians out front. The driver of the vehicle suffered some minor injuries and was checked over by paramedics at the scene.
Younger said there was “some kind of incident” that caused the driver to lose control of her vehicle and accelerate into the building.
“It did not stop, it actually accelerated and hit into the side of the building. Luckily it missed the (chemical room) by several feet,” he said.
In fact, other than the broken brick wall, there was no significant damage at all, at least nothing that would force the city to close the facility. Crews have already boarded up the hole left behind by the car, and repairs to the brick wall are expected sometime in the next few months, said Dave Ellenwood, director of parks, recreation and cultural services for the City of Burnaby.
“It looks worse from the inside than the outside because the inside, (the car) sort of just pushed in the wall and spread some debris, which we’ll have to clean up,” he added.
The C.G. Brown Memorial Pool is open as usual. For hours of operation visit www.burnaby.ca/things-to-do/community-centres/cg-brown-pool.html.
