Restoration company there for The Bay after Stanley Cup riots
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The Vancouver Canuck’s defeat in the final game of the Stanley Cup on June 15 resulted in another riot in the city’s downtown core. One of the looters’ targets was retail landmark The Hudson’s Bay Company on Granville Street. Joseph DeAngelis, V.P. and Manager of BC Region for FirstOnSite Restorations was on the phone immediately to his client and had people at the store by 4:00 am.
Joseph DeAngelis: I think most of our folks were watching the hockey game and knew at this point, a loss would result in something. I think at about 3 or 4:00 in the morning we started seeing the BlackBerries start buzzing around. Our construction people immediately got the call.
The first priority was security. The windows were all broken out, so it looked like the looters got inside. Our first priority was to secure the perimeter, which means to plywood up the outside but the big thing is what was going on in the inside. There was water damage – very evident to us because the fire system was enacted and it looks like the looters also set off fire extinguishers, as well. If you can imagine: you’re walking by a retail store, the windows are broken out, they’ve gone in through the windows, into the environment and then you’ve got water damage. The next thing is … what’s next? Are there fires going on? Is there anything else inside? Is there any asbestos or any kind of harmful effect on safety? Our first concern was do we need Hazmat or not? We have to do a quick assessment because WorkSafety BC sets really strong standards for us to determine if we need to protect our employees before they go into the premises.
After that, we sent our contents people in there. It’s pretty important for a large company like The Bay. We have our contents people there on site.
Narrator: Having seen this type of situation before, we asked Joseph if he was surprised by the damage.
Joseph DeAngelis: Personally, no. Having seen, through my years of living here, and seeing sports events, there’s always the looting that goes on. It could be a broken window and that’s all there is. I was not surprised personally. But corporately, I was somewhat surprised that the penetration within the building was as deep as we saw it. We’re prepared for it but I personally didn’t think that Vancouver would be that drastic. I thought the police would be a little bit more on board but they did the best they could given, the circumstances.
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