[GSBN] The Stench of Arson

[Habib John Gonzalez]

Greetings All:


Last Friday evening in Edmonton, Alberta, I read the GSBN thread about fire with the stench of arson still in my nose and throat. 7:30 that morning young Oilrig John arrived at the Mill Creek Flexhome triplex jobsite to smell smoke. He opened the westerly apartment to find a post on fire. In the time it took him to empty two fire extinguishers a pair of fire trucks arrived and the fire was put out in minutes. 

Water was applied carefully where needed and bale wall wetting was kept at a minimum. Fire investigators concluded the ignition source, likely a cigarette, was inserted between the bales and the right side base of a box column within a party wall between apartments. The main fuel was the polystyrene soundproofing between the toe-ups and not the bales. The base of the box column was severely damaged and the adjacent first course bales were scourched. 

Thursday afternoon we finished applying the scratch coat of lime cement stucco to that party wall from the adjacent apartment. Apparently, the fire was started after midnight in the unplastered side of the wall. I removed the 24 bales, the stuccoed and fire side mesh while the rest of the crew rebuilt the box column. The mess was cleaned, toe-ups and post replaced before the work day ended.

The fire, police and insurance investigators all emphasized if this had been a frame building with a wood floor, the apartments would have been seriously damaged. The fire smoldered long enough and hot enough within the hollow box column was to slightly spald the cement floor beneath it.

The building was tagged in four places with the graffiti of a gang known to police. The police investigators said this is unlikely a targeted attack as there are 5 to 6 arson attempts a week on new construction in the city. 

The cleanup and repair will cost less than $15,000. The big cost is to wash away the stench.

 

 all the best,



Habib



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Sustainable Works
Habib John Gonzalez
RR#1, S-4, C-12
Crescent Valley, British Columbia
Canada, V0G-1H0
tel/fax 250-359-5095
www.sustainableworks.ca
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"Better the kindness of imperfection than perfection without kindness"
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