The ThunderBlogs

The 900-block of Nelson Street was shut down again Saturday as a chemical leak in an adult learning centre continued to pose a potential health risk to anyone in the area.

The block was first closed off Friday around 6 p.m., when police became concerned about the fumes from a urethane foam product used in construction underneath the Pattison High School building at 981 Nelson Street.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, fire trucks, ambulances and police cars again descended on the area and blocked the entrances on Hornby, Smithe, Helmcken and Burrard. At least two dozen police officers and firefighters guarded the location, stringing up yellow police tape and screaming at passing pedestrians who accidentally wandered into the enclosed area. The fumes could be inhaled as far as a block away, emitting an intense odour that was similar to a cleaning product.

Battalion Chief Rod MacDonald said, “There was a lot of substance pumped into the lower level as a construction technique designed to jack up a cement slab. For some reason unknown to us, there were a lot of fumes. At 6 o’ clock [Friday], we thought that we had solved the problem.”

However, a fire broke out in the lower level of the building and it had to be evacuated at midnight, MacDonald said. “We don’t know what caused the fire. We believe it may be… a spontaneous kind of combustion,” caused by the interaction between the urethane foam and an unknown substance. “We poured a lot of foam down into that pit to try and stop the fire.” At that time, officials were told by an environmental hygienist that the air pollution was not dangerous.

Earlier Saturday morning, there was only one security guard patrolling the area and there were no barriers other than a few scattered orange cones. The fumes were overpowering at the entrance of the locked building. At that time, the guard, Harpal Singh, said, “It is not serious. The school will re-open Monday.”

“Since then, we’ve received information that it may not be harmless,” MacDonald said. “So now we’re doing everything we can to reduce the risk to the people in the area.”

A large condominium skyrise towers above the school. The evacuation of residents began around 3 p.m. when firefighters wearing gas masks and oxygen tanks, and carrying axes and flashlights, entered the building. The power had been off for an hour and the businesses at the base of the tower had long since emptied.