Safety charges laid against engineer in deadly Ontario mall collapse

By The Canadian Press - Monday, April 22, 2013 at 9:18 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – A professional engineer faces charges under health and safety laws in connection with last summer’s deadly mall collapse in a northern Ontario town, the province’s Ministry of Labour announced Monday.

The engineer is alleged to have endangered a worker by providing negligent advice, the ministry said.

In an unusual move, however, it did not name the engineer.

Last June, the roof-deck garage of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., caved in. Two women were killed and several others injured.

A judicial inquiry is currently probing the tragedy and provincial police are also investigating.

A second charge against the engineer relates to working in a manner “that may endanger a worker,” according to the ministry.

Maximum penalties on conviction are a fine of up to $25,000 and/or up to 12 months imprisonment.

The matter is scheduled for first appearance on May 15, at the Ontario Court of Justice in Elliot Lake.

Doug Elliott, who represents citizens of the town, said Monday he was not surprised at the charges.

“I know the Ministry of Labour was investigating everyone involved,” Elliott said.

“Some of the engineers were concerned they could be charged.”

The judicial inquiry under Commissioner Paul Belanger has heard evidence related to how the mall was poorly designed from the start, with its untried water-proofing system failing immediately on construction in 1980.

Residents and storekeepers in the mall spent years complaining about severe leaking that caused pieces of cement to crumble and beams to rust.

Nevertheless, several inspections — among them some done by professional engineers in the months before the collapse — failed to turn up any concerns about the impending disaster.

A forensic engineering report for the inquiry concluded that road salt and constant water penetration had created a “marine-like” environment that caused support beams to rust badly.

Ultimately, a weld subject to years of corrosion finally snapped, sending one vehicle and concrete crashing into the mall below.

The bodies of Lucie Aylwin, 37, and Doloris Perizzolo, 74, were pulled from the rubble a few days after the collapse.

Safety charges laid against engineer in deadly Ontario mall collapse

By The Canadian Press - Monday, April 22, 2013 at 8:44 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – A professional engineer faces charges under health and safety laws in connection with last summer’s deadly mall collapse in a northern Ontario town, the province’s Ministry of Labour announced Monday.

The engineer is alleged to have endangered a worker by providing negligent advice, the ministry said.

In an unusual move, however, it did not name the engineer.

Last June, the roof-deck garage of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., caved in. Two women were killed and several others injured.

A judicial inquiry is currently probing the tragedy and provincial police are also investigating.

A second charge against the engineer relates to working in a manner “that may endanger a worker,” according to the ministry.

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Elliot Lake: How could so many engineers be so wrong?

By Michael Friscolanti - Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

A screen capture taken from an animated recreation of the mall collapse.

An engineering firm hired by the Ontario Provincial Police to conduct a forensic investigation into last summer’s deadly mall collapse in Elliot Lake has issued a damning indictment of its fellow engineers—from the man who stamped the structural design of the doomed structure to the many inspectors who failed to recognize how dangerously unstable the building had become.

In a report tabled Tuesday at the public inquiry probing the Algo Centre cave-in, experts from NORR Ltd. concluded that the steel beams and bolts that held up the ill-fated rooftop parking lot were so thoroughly rusted by three decades’ worth of salty slush and rain that they resembled something from a “marine environment.” Yet the severe water damage, obvious to so many shoppers and tenants, repeatedly “went unnoticed or grossly underreported” by the professionals who should have spotted the warning signs.

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Elliot Lake inquiry: Surveillance footage pinpoints exact cause of mall collapse

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 9:51 AM - 0 Comments

In the end, the weight of a single car was enough to bring down a massive chunk of the rooftop parking lot. “The last straw,” according to a team of engineers who investigated last summer’s deadly shopping mall collapse in Elliot Lake, Ont.

A public inquiry into the Algo Centre cave-in that killed two women and injured 20 others has just begun, with early testimony focused on the original construction more than three decades ago. But one crucial fact—the specific, scientific cause of the catastrophe—is now clear, thanks in part to a chilling surveillance video that captured the implosion. “The trigger of the collapse on June 23rd, 2012 is quite evident,” concludes a 700-page report from NORR, a global engineering firm that conducted a forensic investigation for the Ontario Provincial Police. “The evidence of this is overwhelming.”

The expert conclusion? Decades of water damage had so corroded the weld on one particular steel connector holding up the concrete slabs that it couldn’t even withstand the pressure of a passing vehicle. Just seconds after it drove by, the roof crumbled.

According to the report, one of hundreds of exhibits already filed at the public inquiry, the main culprit was a rusty steel beam that ran directly above the mall’s second-floor lottery kiosk, ground zero for the eventual collapse. Both ends of the horizontal beam were bolted to steel connectors, which were then welded to structural columns protruding from the floor. From a strict engineering perspective, it was a sound design that met all necessary building code provisions.

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‘This is not a trial’: getting to the truth in Elliot Lake

By Michael Friscolanti - Monday, March 4, 2013 at 7:20 PM - 0 Comments

On the northbound side of Highway 108, the windy road that leads to Elliot Lake, Ont., there is still a large wooden sign directing motorists to the Algo Centre mall. “The centre of it all,” it says. Unlike the ad, the mall itself is nearly gone, ripped apart by a demolition crew. By the time the snow melts, there will be nothing left of the place but memories and questions. Many, many questions.

Nine months after a chunk of the mall’s roof crashed to the ground—killing two women and injuring 20 others—the “centre of it all” is now a second-floor hearing room a short drive away, where a public inquiry will try to uncover what everyone in Elliot Lake is desperate to know: the truth. Why did a portion of the rooftop parking lot crash to the ground? Why were the warning signs—incessant leaking, crumbling ceiling tiles, rusty structural beams—seemingly ignored for so many years? Why did Lucie Aylwin and Doloris Perizzolo have to die?

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Demolition starts on Elliot Lake mall where two died, others injured

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 8:54 PM - 0 Comments

ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – Wrecking crews have begun to demolish the Elliot Lake mall where two people died and around 20 were injured when part of its roof collapsed.

“It’s bittersweet,” Mayor Rick Hamilton said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press when asked Thursday about reaction to the work in the small northern Ontario town.

“The mall has always had a close relationship to many of the people who lived (and) who were raised here but at the same time it’s a fresh start as well. It’s left a lot of bad memories and by and large what I’m hearing in the street is it’s high time it’s been removed from the landscape of Elliot Lake.”

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Newsmakers 2012: The right stuff

By Ken MacQueen - Friday, December 21, 2012 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

Murray Close/Lionsgate/CP

Krush Barrier

Say what you will about the Hummer, that ungainly beast of a motor vehicle can be a lifesaver in the right hands. On Aug. 31, Darrell Krushelnicki, a 46-year-old energy-company worker in Fort Nelson, B.C., sacrificed his 2006 Hummer H3, at no small risk to himself, to stop a speeding car from slamming into four young pedestrians on an Edmonton crosswalk.

It was 4:30 p.m., and Krushelnicki, in Edmonton to visit his family, was exiting the Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre parking lot. Traffic was stopped for three teens and a three-year-old child on a crosswalk with amber lights flashing. Krushelnicki was edging the Hummer out onto the road to make a left turn when he noticed a grey Pontiac speeding down the street, the driver allegedly talking on a cellphone. Krushelnicki edged out further, but it was clear the driver was oblivious to the kids on the road.

“He was accelerating, and I had to make a decision, I felt, and that was to stop the vehicle,” he later explained. He gritted his teeth, braced for impact and drove directly into the path of the car to shield the young people. There was a loud bang, a clatter of debris, and the two vehicles skidded to a stop just feet away from the stunned foursome, who had been unaware they were even at risk. “If it wasn’t for that guy, I’m pretty sure I would be dead,” a shaken 15-year-old Janice Marett told a CBC interviewer. “He could have died if it hit the wrong way. He risked his life for four kids he didn’t even know. It’s amazing.” Continue…

Collapsed mall owners, engineers want secrecy at public inquiry

By Colin Perkel - Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at 10:58 AM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The owners of a mall that collapsed in northern Ontario this summer are asking a public inquiry to keep some of their documents secret.

A similar request has come from a professional engineering association related to complaints and disciplinary measures taken against two engineers involved with the Algo Centre Mall.

Normally, material deemed relevant to the proceedings would form part of the public record and one lawyer said secrecy could undermine the hearings.

The inquiry under Commissioner Paul Belanger has notified participants and media lawyers that they have the right to make submissions objecting to the confidentiality demands.

“This may go right to the root of the inquiry,” media lawyer Paul Schabas said Tuesday.

“If there are issues about the competency or conduct of engineers, the confidentiality issues could go right to the heart of the purpose of the inquiry.” Continue…

Owner of collapsed mall loses bid to have taxpayers foot his inquiry bill

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 7:32 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The owners of a mall that collapsed in northern Ontario were denied funding on Thursday to participate in the public inquiry into the tragedy.

In his ruling, Commissioner Paul Belanger said Bob Nazarian and his son Levon Nazarian had not shown why Ontario taxpayers should pay their legal bills.

“Applicants seeking funding must be forthright and provide the commission with a clear picture of their net worth,” Belanger said in his ruling.

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Christine Girard lifts a nation

By Ken MacQueen - Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 5:00 PM - 0 Comments

Grigory Dukor/Reuters

A few minutes earlier Tuesday, she hefted 133kg over her head in the clean and jerk, more than twice her own precisely measured 62.87kg weight. Before she went out for her final lift, her husband, Walter Bailey, an RCMP member who doubles as a coach, told her she’d needed to heft 135 kg. She assumed that was just to get on the podium. Bailey, looking for silver, didn’t disabuse her of the notion.

Such details are on a need-to-know basis, Bailey said later. “Her job is to go and lift the bar.” So, stymied by 135kg, she walked off devastated, until Bailey held up three fingers. Then it hit her: her previous lift was enough for third place, behind gold medalist Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan and Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia.

With that bronze, she became the first Canadian woman to ever win a medal in the sport.

We now know that very tough and strong weightlifters sometimes cry. And dance around like a kid in the playground. And wrap themselves in the flag, if the occasion calls for it. And it did. And even RCMP members cry. “A little,” says Bailey. “I’m a cop, right? It’s my job to mask my emotions.

It’s been quite a journey for the 27-year-old Girard. She was born to francophone parents in Elliot Lake, Ont., She moved to Rouyn-Noranda, in northwestern Que., where she started to heft weights at age 10—and then three years ago to White Rock, in coastal, B.C., when her husband was transferred to the nearby Richmond detachment.

After her medal, a reporter asked in French if she considered herself a Quebecker or an Ontarian. She waved her hands in reply, the nails painted, alternate pinkies, in red and white. Canadian to the tips of her fingers.

Women’s weightlifting has modest roots in Canada. Now she hopes more girls and women will join the sport, even though her parents Aline and Gaetan, had urged to her take up anything but such a lonely, unglamorous pursuit.

“I still have a lot of people who think that I’ll look like a big man with super big muscles,” she says. “I want people to see that weightlifters are normal people.” Normal, and a petite five-foot-three, with a cute, gap-toothed smile.

But for her team of coaches, her hubby and Guy Marineau, offering advice from Montreal, it can be a lonely business. The lesson she took from Beijing was to work harder and smarter. So, when she moved to White Rock, her parents packed their tools in their vehicle and drove cross-country. Over 10 days, they transformed her garage into a fully equipped workout gym. “If you’re too tall,” she says with a laugh, “you don’t fit in my garage.”

What with the medal ceremony and press conference, she had yet to see her parents, who cheered her on from the stands. She wants to thank them yet again from all they’ve done. And for her little gym. “My Dad, “ she says with pride, “he can do anything.”

But can he lift 133kg over his head, I ask.

“No,” she said with that smile again, “but I’m sure he’s happy that I can.”

The quiet cuts

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 9:45 AM - 0 Comments

Federal funding for emergency preparedness teams will be cut.

A federal government cut is expected to hit the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team leading efforts at a collapsed mall in Elliot Lake, Ont. Urban search and rescue units across the country are facing smaller budgets as part of federal efforts to cut costs.

A federal government memo posted to the website of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs in April says Public Safety Canada is going to cut the program that helps fund the search and rescue teams. ”Federal contributions for emergency preparedness projects under [the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program] will end in 2013 as will federal funding provided under JEPP for urban search and rescue and for critical infrastructure initiatives,” Gina Wilson, assistant deputy minister of regional operations at Public Safety Canada, wrote in the memo.

Senator Colin Kenny blasts the Harper government.

If the federal government does find a way to help in Elliot Lake, God bless it. Alternately, God may wish to damn the government for shutting down its contribution to a co-operative federal-provincial-territorial program meant to ensure that Canadians across the country have access to competent, timely assistance at times like this.

The Joint Emergency Preparedness Program was established in 1980 to create infrastructure and provide equipment for front-line emergency workers. The five HUSAR units, located in large cities across the country, are meant to ensure that help gets to communities like Elliot Lake in a hurry. The Canadian Emergency Management College in Ottawa offers invaluable classroom and field training to emergency workers. Federal funding is being withdrawn from all of them.

See previously: The quiet cuts

Video: The Mayor of Elliot Lake on rescue efforts in the rubble

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

Premier intervenes to restart search for mall survivors

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, June 26, 2012 at 5:43 AM - 0 Comments

Rescue efforts at the Algo Centre Mall are a-go again after a late-night call from Premier Dalton McGuinty. Rick Hamilton, mayor of Elliot Lake, said the premier called with promises of assistance.

“He simply said if that was his son or daughter he would like to see every means necessary used to effect the rescue,” Hamilton said at a 10 p.m. news conference.

As the National Post reports, the search had been called off about five hours earlier after an engineer warned that the building could further collapse at any time putting rescuers at risk.

“I have spoken to Emergency Management Ontario and the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team and have instructed them to determine if there is any other way possible to reach any victims without endangering our rescuers, including the use of equipment to dismantle the building from the exterior,” the premier said in a statement last night.

“I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned. We owe that to the people of Elliot Lake too. Ontarians expect nothing less.”

An emergency worker told CBC news that they will move to “extreme measures” to move the rescue forward.

“We’re hopeful that we can get some success going here,” said Elliot Lake fire Chief Paul Officer.

Rescuers call off search at shopping centre

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 25, 2012 at 8:15 PM - 0 Comments

Rescue crews have called off their search at Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, the National Post report

“The building is unsafe,” a spokesman for the team told reporters. “Totally unsafe.”

At a press conference Monday afternoon police told media that two people are missing and thought to be dead.

The Post says the mall owners must decide what to do with the building — a plan that will have to be approved by the Ministry of Labour.

Rescue team focused on taps from the rubble

By macleans.ca - Monday, June 25, 2012 at 4:51 PM - 0 Comments

A rescue team is trying to reach at least one survivor after the roof of a mall collapsed in Elliot Lake, Ont. Early Monday afternoon, rescuers remained 20-30 meters away from the person making the sound. Thirty people have been reported missing and one person is confirmed dead.

Officials also said they heard noise coming from behind fallen slabs of concrete and metal. “Some of our search members this morning heard a couple of taps,” said Bill Needles, a spokesman from the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team, which travelled from Toronto.

“They called for a quick silence on the site and there was a couple more taps. That was an indication to us that we were dealing with a rescue,” he said.

“We then turned our whole efforts towards trying to locate this individual. There was no verbal, there was no sight, we have no idea if it’s male, female, what age, it was just a tap.”

Rescue workers experienced a setback on Monday morning during the rescue attempt as the rubble shifted.

Police have reported 22 minor injuries from the collapse. This morning the National Post quoted an anonymous official who had been briefed on the rescue attempt: “The truth is no one has a handle on how bad it could be,” the official said.