Safety concerns raised after man hit by falling brick near Pantages demolition site

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      A Downtown Eastside community group is seeking more safety measures at a demolition site on East Hastings Street, after a man was struck in the side of the head by a piece of brick last week.

      Michael Whelan, a resident of a single-room occupancy hotel next to the Pantages Theatre site, said he was walking by the area Friday (August 19) when a brick shattered on the sidewalk in front of him, and a piece of brick hit him in the side of the head.

      “The brick exploded into pieces,” Whelan said in an interview in his apartment in the Regent Hotel. “People just ran for the road.”

      Whelan’s wife Karen, who has lived with him in the Regent for the last eight years, said he began complaining about a headache after the incident, and became nauseated and light-headed.

      Ivan Drury of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council, who said he has raised the issue of safety at the work site multiple times over the last four months, wants to see a plywood tunnel kept in place over the sidewalk to protect pedestrians.

      Barb Floden, a spokesperson for the City of Vancouver, said inspectors reviewed the site and recommended that additional reinforcement straps be placed on the netting covering the scaffolding on the old theatre.

      “It was already in a fairly tight set-up, but they saw a couple places where they could get a few more of the straps, which is what’s been done,” she told the Straight by phone.

      Whelan said he had concerns about the demolition site before the brick shattered on the sidewalk in front of him. He and his wife have been noticing thick layers of dust accumulating every few days in their sixth-floor apartment, which directly overlooks the demolition site.

      Whelan said his asthma has also got worse since the demolition work began, and he’s had to increase his medication. He said he often has to prop himself up on his elbow to catch his breath in the night.

      “He scares me sometimes," said Whelan's wife. "He has a hard time getting his breath back."

      Drury said he has made complaints to city staff over safety concerns at the site since demolition work began.

      “They’re treating this site as though it were an industrial area...and not a high-density residential area where more than 400 people live within spitting distance of this demolition site,” Drury told the Straight by phone.

      Owner Marc Williams said there are a number of safety measures in place at the site. He noted there was previously plywood covering the sidewalk in front of the Pantages demolition site, which was later replaced by scaffolding covered with netting.

      “The type of hoarding was covered walkway hoarding, and that’s been replaced with a different type of hoarding,” he told the Straight by phone. “So it’s a different process for a different procedure.”

      The incident on Friday occurred just before work crews tore down the street-side facades in the 100-block of East Hastings over the weekend.

      Williams expects the demolition process will take about another three weeks.

      Comments

      1 Comments

      Jimmy spitz

      Sep 10, 2012 at 10:37pm

      Is this his before or after the brick hit his head picture?