Bc`s first six-storey wood-frame construction goes up in flames

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Thursday, May 5, 2011 | FINAL EDITION
B.C.’s first six-storey wood-frame
construction goes up in flames
Wooden buildings
previously limited
to four floors due
in part to fire risk
Speeders
face
insurance
increase
Traffic violators
may pay higher rates
BY Andrea Woo
Vancouver Sun
concerns within the fire services community.”
Drivers with speeding tickets or other traffic violations
will be hit with higher insurance rates if a proposal by
the Insurance Corp. of B.C. is
approved.
The proposal will go to the
B.C. Utilities Commission later
this year and is part of a major
company restructuring plan the
insurance provider announced
Wednesday.
Under the insurance provider’s current claim-rated scale,
a driver moves down the scale
for each year he or she does not
make an at-fault crash claim.
Every claim-free year increases
the discount by five per cent
until the driver reaches the
maximum basic insurance
discount.
Under the new proposed
plan, called the “driving record
model,” speeding and traffic
violations would be included.
Mark Jan Vrem, spokesman for ICBC, said the change
comes after years of customer
surveys.
CONTINUED ON A7
CONTINUED ON A7
BY Tracy Sherlock
and Laura Kane
Vancouver Sun
Two of the first six-storey wood-frame buildings
approved under a revised B.C.
building code allowing higher
wood construction burnt to
the ground in a massive fire in
Richmond late Tuesday.
The development, called The
Remy, at 9388 Cambie Rd., is
a 188-unit condo project that
includes 81 affordable-housing
units and a daycare.
Taking advantage of building
code changes introduced in
2009, The Remy was to have
been the first development
in B.C. to go above four storeys using wood, rather than
concrete.
Previously, wood-frame
buildings were limited to four
storeys due to fire risk and
structural concerns. The code
was changed as part of the B.C.
Wood First Act that aimed to
stimulate the province’s timber industry. The provincial
government was persuaded
that improved fire prevention
Alexander Michael Lee/Special to The Vancouver Sun
Flames engulf the construction site of The Remy development at Cambie and Garden City in Richmond early Wednesday.
techniques such as sprinkler
systems that extended to balconies would make the buildings safe.
Still, the revised building
code met with some criticism
from fire officials who worried
their equipment would not be
able to handle fires in wood
buildings that height.
In 2009, Richmond Fire
Rescue fire prevention officer
Dave Clou wrote a report to
city council warning that taller
wood buildings “raise several
technology
Hang up the iPhone — here comes paper phone
Bending the flexible device will allow users to make calls and play music
BY Gillian Shaw
Vancouver Sun
Move over, iPhone; you soon
could be replaced by the paper
smartphone.
That’s the prediction from
Prof. Roel Vertegaal, director
of Queen’s University’s Human
Media Lab, who will be presenting an interactive paper
computer that duplicates many
of the functions of an iPhone —
from making calls to playing
music to sharing books — at
the Association of Computing
Machinery’s CHI conference
next week in Vancouver.
“We expect all phones to be
like this within five to 10 years,”
said Vertegaal.
What he’s calling the world’s
first paper phone has the look
and feel of a small sheet of
translucent paper.
Vertegaal likens its look and
form to a flexible conference
badge, but the prototype phone
can carry out computer functions, from playing music to
making calls.
“The e ink screen is similar
to what you find in the Kindle
except this screen is flexible,”
Vertegaal said of the 9.5-cm
diagonal, thin-film flexible display screen that uses the technology found in ereaders like
Amazon’s Kindle.
To make a call on the prototype phone, you squeeze the
interactive paper, which has a
layer that senses how it is being
bent, and hold it to your ear.
“Just curving the screen, it
knows you want to make a
phone call,” said Vertegaal.
He said the intent of the prototype is to demonstrate what
can be done with the technology. “This is very early days,”
he said. “This is, as far as I am
aware, the first paper phone.”
The team that created the
prototype included researchers
from Arizona State University
as well as from Queen’s, working with ASU’s Flexible Display
Center and the E Ink Corp., a
leading developer of electronic
paper display technology.
The team’s presentation to the
conference focuses on how the
device’s functions can be controlled by bending the display
in various ways.
Vertegaal said the prototype
has limited functionality and
it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to take the idea
through commercialization.
The prototype offers a peek at
a new generation of super-thin
and flexible computers that are
more like paper than clunky
laptops. Instead of windows
on a computer screen, we’ll
have pieces of electronic paper
we can write on, send off the
email and stack up, like sheets
of paper.
“This is going to change
everything,” said Vertegaal. “It
is going to change the way we
work with computers.”
gshaw@vancouversun.com
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Thursday, May 5, 2011 | BREAKING NEWS: VANCOUVERSUN.COM
FROM PAGE A1
A7
webcam wildlife
Richmond condo
Hornby Island eagle chicks hatch
project razed by fire
BY LAURA KANE
The report says Richmond’s 75-foot
ladder trucks would not be able to
reach the heights of buildings allowed
under the new code, especially given
that parking lots are built above
street grade because the city is at sea
level.
“To fight a fire effectively in such a
structure will require new firefighting
tactics, which could also require additional firefighting resources, more
personnel and higher reaching ladder
trucks,” the report warned.
Tim Wilkinson, deputy chief of operations for Richmond Fire Rescue, said
the firefighters had the appropriate
ladders necessary to fight this fire.
The report referred to Richmond’s
need for higher ladders for rescue
operations, he said, but it was not a
concern in this case because the building was uninhabited.
On Wednesday, as the building still
smouldered, city, fire and provincial government officials rushed to
reassure the public that wood-frame
buildings are safe. Because the building was under construction, sprinkler
systems and fire retardant materials
had not yet been installed.
“I can assure the public that woodframe construction is safe, even with
six-storey buildings and this kind of
building isn’t unique to B.C.,” said an
email from the Ministry of Energy.
“A building that’s under construction
does not have many of its fire safety
features that slow the spread of a fire
in place, like sprinkler systems, fire
doors, and windows.”
Wilkinson conceded that the wood
contributed to the severity of the fire.
“Wood obviously is going to add to
the fire because it’s a product that
burns ...,” Wilkinson said, adding that
fires at construction sites are difficult to extinguish because the sprinkler systems and other fire protection
measures aren’t complete.
“It’s just simply that it’s a very big
building that’s under construction.”
City of Richmond spokesman Ted
Townsend said the city had addressed
some of the fire rescue concerns.
“There were some improvements
made to address safety concerns,
within the building code; one was
requiring sprinklers on balconies.”
However, Townsend said the city
has not made any specific purchases
related to fighting fires in taller
buildings.
The developer, Dana Westermark,
owner and president of Oris Development Corporation, said he intends to
rebuild.
“This is a difficult time, not only for
us as a developer but for the buyers
and partners who have been involved
with us throughout the process,” Westermark said. “We ask for everyone’s
patience and vow that we will move
ahead and deliver on our promise to
bring a new, vibrant community to
Richmond centre.”
One of the buildings that burned was
entirely slated for affordable housing
and was to open later this year.
The second building, scheduled to
open in 2012, included 107 units of
market housing, 85 per cent of which
had already been sold.
The intense fire, visible from kilometres away, broke out at around 11 p.m.
No one was injured, but the blaze left
Richmond streets smoke-filled and
smelling of burning wood well into
Wednesday.
The investigation into the cause
of the fire is in the early stages, and
investigators don’t yet know how and
where it started or if it is suspicious,
said Wilkinson. He said investigators
are using social media to find information, including videos posted on
YouTube.
The two buildings were fully
engulfed by flames when firefighters
arrived. An abandoned home beside
the site was also destroyed.
Wilkinson said investigators may be
able to get a closer look in a day or so.
Brianna Schofield was at a friend’s
place near the fire when they smelled
smoke.
“We were there before the fire trucks
or anything,” Schofield said. “There
was tons of smoke and ambers in
the sky. I’ve never seen anything like
this.
“We were standing on Odlin Road
and the heat was unbelievable. I had
to get back into my car — it looked like
a wall of fire.”
Shortly after she arrived at the scene,
Schofield heard a large boom and the
power went out.
“It was pitch black. We thought it
was raining, but really it was all the
soot coming down on us. We were covered in it,” she said. “The ashes falling
from the sky were so big and still in
flames that it caught two homes on
fire.”
Falling ashes and embers blowing
off the fire caused spot fires throughout the city, Townsend said. All available Richmond firefighters were at the
main fire, so firefighters were called in
from Vancouver.
Ten other homes were damaged by
the blowing embers, Wilkinson said.
Schofield saw the large building collapse as it burned.
“It was unbelievable to see. The
entire building was in flames,” she
said. “We saw all the people getting
evacuated on Odlin Road — it’s all
brand-new apartments there — and
we saw them closing the gas station
beside the fire.”
Desmond Mok heard about the fire
on Facebook and rushed as close as he
could get to the fire, on Stolberg Street
and Capstan Way.
“There were more than 200 people
watching. Cars were everywhere and
everyone was taking pictures and talking about the fire,” Mok said. “The
ashes were blowing ... and you could
see explosions in the air and hear
loud crackling sounds of the fire in
the building.”
Edward Mak, who was standing at
the corner of Cambie and Garden City
at 12:30 a.m., reported that he could
feel the heat from the flames on his
face. “The sky is covered with ashes.
The two [construction] cranes are still
standing but the actual building that
is burning is starting to collapse on to
Cambie street.”
The federal and provincial governments contributed $4.7 million for the
affordable housing, the province gave
$500,000 for the daycare and the City
of Richmond gave $900,000 for the
daycare. The daycare centre did not
burn down, but was damaged in the
fire. Construction had not yet begun
on a third building planned for the
site.
Vancouver Sun
While many Canadians were glued
to their televisions watching the royal
wedding and the federal election, bird
watchers were engrossed by another
broadcast event.
The famous “Eagles of Hornby
Island” hatched their first two eaglets
of the year.
The longtime eagle companions featured on Doug Carrick’s popular webcam site, hornbyeagles.com, recently
became proud parents to “Alexandra”
and “David.”
Mom and Dad are hardly new to parenting — the couple is believed to have
hatched 18 eaglets in their 22 years of
nesting.
Alexandra hatched on April 28 after
a daylong ordeal in which she broke a
hole through the shell but appeared to
be stuck inside.
To observers’ great relief, the persistent eaglet emerged safe and healthy.
The second eaglet, David, hatched a
few days later.
Carrick named the eaglets after
environmentalists Alexandra Morton
and David Suzuki. Morton is known
for her research on conserving B.C.’s
wild salmon, a favourite food of bald
eagles.
“Alexandra Morton and David
Suzuki have dedicated their lives to
the benefit of all people,” Carrick said
in a press release. “It is hoped that
the naming of our chicks ‘Alexandra’ and ‘David’ will encourage us to
think about what is really important
in life.”
Carrick and his wife, Sheila, have
been observing the many eagle nests
of Hornby Island for 15 years.
The couple set up the webcam,
nestled high in a Douglas fir tree,
in 2006. It attracted as many as
100 million viewers in its first year.
The eagles laid two eggs in 2006 but
both failed to hatch. They have successfully hatched three eaglets since,
although two did not survive.
The eagles are considered senior citizens for their species at 28 years of
age. The average lifespan of eagles in
the wild is 30.
lkane@vancouversun.com
Hornby Island’s famous eagles have
hatched two eaglets, live on the Net.
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tsherlock@vancouversun.com
lkane@vancouversun.com
With files from Gillian Burnett
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FROM PAGE A1
Speeders face insurance hike
“We realized to be a successful insurance company, we have to be customer-focused and customer-based,”
said Jan Vrem.
“We’re modernizing our company to
better serve them based on the feedback we’re getting.”
One common complaint was customers felt it wasn’t fair that good
drivers paid the same rate as drivers
with a history of collisions and traffic
violations, Jan Vrem said.
In response, ICBC will go to the B.C.
Utilities Commission — which sets
and regulates ICBC’s basic rates — in
late spring or early fall with the driving record model proposal.
“The premiums that you pay will be
reflective of your risk as a driver on
the road,” Jan Vrem said. “If you’re in
a number of collisions, or you receive
a number of traffic violations, you’re
going to be paying more than drivers
who don’t.
“It will essentially follow the driver’s
history. In other words, the policy will
be on the driver, as opposed to the
car.”
He said the driving record model will
paint a more comprehensive picture
of a driver’s history than the existing
model.
Jan Vrem could not provide an
estimate of what the revised rates or
potential savings might be, noting each
policy will be slightly different and the
corporation is still “working [its] way
through different scenarios.”
If approved, Jan Vrem estimates
the driving record model to roll out in
2013 or 2014.
The “new” ICBC will also include a
new, streamlined claims system that
will allow customers the option of processing their claims in person, on the
phone or online.
“There will be less paperwork, fewer
processes,” Jan Vrem said. “They
won’t have to go back to ICBC two or
three times to deal with their claim.
Eventually, our customers will be able
to track the process of their claims
as they go through the system, much
the same way you can track a FedEx
package.”
The new claims system is expected to
go online in the third quarter of 2012,
Jan Vrem said.
ICBC’s workforce will be reduced
by about 350 jobs, including 70
management positions, over the next
three years due to normal departures, including retirement and voluntary turnover. These positions
will not be filled, due to “new technologies and systems,” according to
an information bulletin posted on
ICBC’s website.
awoo@vancouversun.com
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