Developer to cooperate but apparently confused by what constitutes safe practice.
The owner of a Vancouver property where demolition went awry TWICE last Thursday says he is willing to fully cooperate with all parties involved to make sure work can safely resume on clearing two buildings at Helmcken Street and Hornby.
“I want to make sure everybody is happy before there is more work. It’s important we aren’t taking on more demolition until we understand it’s safe,” said developer James Schouw of James Schouw and Associates.
WorkSafeBC, which was notified by police after the incident occurred, has closed down the site pending an investigation, spokeswoman Donna Freeman said.
“Someone could have easily been killed; it’s quite serious,” she said, adding she hasn’t seen a similar situation before. “This is a first for me.”
A flag person narrowly escaped being crushed by two walls and a lamp post during the botched demolition when a wall collapsed onto the street.
A YouTube video, which included an aerial shot from a balcony and one from the street, showed a backhoe knocking the north wall of the building onto Helmcken, before the west wall collapsed onto Hornby about 10 minutes later. Schouw said the video looked worse than what actually happened.
“I think there may have been a perception that, ‘wow, there could have been a person there.’ but the traffic control people [were on site]. …I know the demolition contractor had traffic persons keeping people away from the danger zone,” he said. “As I understand the city doesn’t want to shut down streets for projects of that size. So generally the traffic people block people and traffic at certain times when there are hazardous maneouvres,” Schouw said.
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