Two days after the fire at the Wyndham Crescent condominium, a dark cloud in the form of a 30-meter-high construction crane still hangs over the area.
“We don’t know how safe it is right now,” Kelowna City’s risk manager Lance Kayfish told Global News.
Because of this, Central Okanagan Emergency Operations expanded its evacuation order on Wednesday evening and declared a local state of emergency for properties within 300 feet of the construction site.
The structural integrity of the crane is still unknown after the major Tuesday morning fire that gutted the condominium project on the corner of Glenmore and Union Streets.
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“We really need to play it safe to make sure the community is safe,” said Kayfish.
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“Obviously this is a residential area. There is an elementary school nearby and we just want to make sure that in the unlikely event that the crane falls, no one will be injured. “
On Wednesday, the nearby townhouses at Parklane Townhomes were a flurry of insurance investigator activity as some residents were allowed to return home.
However, fences were erected on Thursday morning blocking almost all access to the area, and the Parklane Townhomes were completely empty due to the new order.
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The building under construction in Kelowna goes up in flames
The building under construction in Kelowna goes up in flames – April 6, 2021
Down the street and around the corner in Wyndham Terrace, the evacuation order for nine houses is still in effect, and Glenmore Road is still closed between Scenic and Cross.
Part of the problem in assessing the structural integrity of the crane is the actual position of the crane as opposed to its condition.
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“The crane itself is actually on a suspended slab on a parkade, and that slab is reinforced from below with a metal brace,” explained Kayfish.
Unfortunately, nobody knows the condition of the plate or the metal bracing.
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Crane integrity at the site of the fire is still unknown
Crane integrity at the construction site fire site still unknown – April 7, 2021
However, there is some good news for those affected by the evacuation order.
“Right now they are actually working on a safety plan to conduct an on-site safety inspection of the crane,” said Kayfish.
Dave Nahal of Wyndham Developments, the owners of the site, told Global News that he expects an engineering company to be on site on Friday to begin the initial evaluation work.
© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
