Downtown Calgary office tower evacuated
Posted May 4, 2011 3:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hundreds of people who work in the 40-plus storey Scotia Centre office tower were forced to leave Wednesday around 11:00 a.m., thanks to a hazardous materials leak.
The subsequent arrival of emergency vehicles in the area resulted in traffic chaos, with police shutting down 2nd Street Southwest between 8th and 7th Avenues.
“There’s a coolant system within the building,” Fire Department spokesman Brian McAsey tells 660News. “There was some sort of a failure and there was a release of coolant. It’s dangerous when it’s exposed to open air like that, to human health.”
Despite the hazard, McAsey says firefighters were cautious before entering the tower.
“Whenever it’s a hazardous materials call, we don’t run in there,” added McAsey. “We’re extremely methodical and meticulous about cleaning that up. There’s no danger to anybody in the public, so that’s the most important thing. We’ve mitigated that.”
After arriving on the scene, authorities decided it would be a few hours before workers would be allowed back into their offices.
“We’re identifying it, making sure we know what we’re talking about, the actual scope of how much is contamination,” McAsey continued. “We’re doing air quality tests and then what we’re going to do is clean up that building, make sure it’s safe and then hopefully be able to return people in a fairly timely fashion.”
There were no reports of injuries.
