David Hogben
Sun
CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun Police were forced to blow out a suite door at Carrigan Court.
CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun RCMP demolition experts were forced to blow in a heavily reinforced door (at end of hall) after a Burnaby man held police in a standoff for four days. The blast caused extensive damage to the floor in 3970 Carrigan Court.
Four weeks after police stormed a Burnaby condominium unit, blasting its door off and rendering nearby suites uninhabitable, residents of the 26-floor tower are still being put up in a nearby hotel.
The damaged occurred Oct. 9 after a metalworker with suspected psychiatric problems, and a firearm, held police at bay for over four days. RCMP demolition experts eventually had to use a large amount of explosives to blow in the heavily reinforced door to his 20th-floor suite.
“It was definitely loud, kind of like a gunshot,” said resident Dave Magnusson, who lives two floors above.
The force of the blast damaged light fixtures, pried doors off hinges and cracked wallboard in up to 10 suites, whose residents will spend yet more weeks in a nearby hotel.
Even residents on other floors were affected.
“It’s definitely a nuisance,” said Martin Kendell, who lives on the 10th floor. Kendell said he must leave his suite 10 minutes earlier than usual if he wants to keep an appointment, because only one of three elevators is functioning.
RCMP Sgt. John Ward said it will still be a while before the residents can return. “I can tell you that they are not going back within the next week or so, that is for sure.”
A visit to the 20th floor revealed a scene that looked like a construction site.
Walls separating the condominium suites from the common hallway were merely metal studs, hanging sheets of plastic and plywood sheets.
Ward said the scene probably looks worse now than it did immediately after the blast. He said the walls had to be removed so inspectors could ensure no damage was done to concrete foundations.
One 20th-floor resident, Myles Robson, said he is upset with the quality of the hotel he was placed in, but said he would not identify it at the request of the RCMP.
“It’s embarrassing to have people over,” said Robson, who said he and his roommate are accustomed to better surroundings. He said, however, he did not fault the RCMP for the way they handled the incident.
It is still too soon to estimate the cost of the damage, but Ward said it will be substantial.
He said he would not be surprised if the cost of the repairs and hotel bills comes in at more than $100,000. He said it will probably be less than $500,000.
Whatever the bill comes to, Ward said, it will not drain the Burnaby RCMP budget. He said the force has a contingency fund to cover such incidents.
Events began on the evening of Oct. 6 when the rope of a window-washer’s suspended platform outside the tower was cut.
Fortunately, the window-washer was not on the platform at the time.
Police were called to the building at 3970 Carrigan Court in Burnaby. They surrounded the tower and attempted unsuccessfully to coax the man out.
All attempts to negotiate failed, said Ward.
“We exhausted every possible means of trying to get the gentleman to leave his suite. We were concerned for his safety,” Ward said of the decision to blast out the door of the man’s suite around dinner time on Saturday, Oct. 9.
“The intelligence we had indicated that he had at least one [firearm] in the suite.”
Once the door was blown off, police sent a robot in to check out the residence.
The uninjured man was taken into custody and sent for an assessment of his mental health.
Ward said one review of the use of the explosive has already concluded that an appropriate amount of force was used. Another routine investigation is being conducted, but, Ward said, the fact that no one was injured in a long, potentially dangerous standoff indicates the operation was well conducted.
© The Vancouver Sun 2004