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<DIV>Greetings All:</DIV>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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. <?xml:namespace prefix = o
ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The cleanup and repair will cost less
than $15,000. The big cost is to wash away the stench.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"> all the best,</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Habib</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN lang=EN-CA
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">**********************************************************************************<BR>Sustainable
Works<BR>Habib John Gonzalez<BR>RR#1, S-4, C-12<BR>Crescent Valley, British
Columbia<BR>Canada, V0G-1H0<BR>tel/fax 250-359-5095<BR><A
href="http://www.sustainableworks.ca">www.sustainableworks.ca</A><BR>**********************************************************************************<BR>"Better
the kindness of imperfection than perfection without
kindness"<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>