Residents of one of the two Esquimalt apartment buildings evacuated Tuesday due a cave-in during excavation at an adjacent construction site were set to spend a second night away from home on Wednesday.
One of the buildings near Constance Avenue and Admirals Road was deemed safe for tenants’ return several hours after the evacuation, but about 20 people from the other building had to find alternate accommodation or were put up in hotel rooms by Esquimalt’s Emergency Social Services.
The municipality’s Archie Browning Sports Centre, a short distance from where the evacuations occurred, is continuing to be used as a reception centre for residents.
There has been no immediate word on re-entry to the apartment building. Calgary-based Eagle Crest Construction is building a six-storey rental complex called Constance House at the site of the cave-in.
The company said no one was available to give an update Wednesday. Excavation-shoring company Shortek Systems Canada, based in Gibbons, Alberta, did not respond to messages from the Times Colonist.
A tenant who asked to be identified only as Niv said she is staying at a Victoria hotel with another resident thanks to Emergency Social Services, and is likely to look for another apartment instead of returning to her current one.
“We’re trying to secure our situation at the hotel so we can stay there longer,” she said.
She went back to the site to take a look at conditions Wednesday and said it appeared that the collapsed area of her building’s driveway had grown. Niv said some residents had worried about the construction activity that has been going on next door for about a month.
“People are stressed and concerned,” she said. “A few residents are staying with relatives and some are staying in hotels.”
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said the municipality’s focus is on supporting displaced residents and providing information as it becomes available. “Everybody wants to make sure that this site is safe and that those residents feel confident in that safety before they go back.”
She said she is also eager to find out what happened to cause the cave-in that triggered the evacuations.
Tenant Wally Underwood was able to retrieve the four cats he was looking after for his children on Wednesday after spending the night in a hotel, and said he is doing his best to take things in stride.
“We’re doing good,” he said. “Not much you can do, just go with the flow.”
Esquimalt Fire Chief Steve Serbic was at the site Wednesday and said that the filling of a collapsed area of the driveway next to the still-evacuated building has started, and his department is doing its best to keep residents in the loop.
He said an engineer from Esquimalt arrived at the site just after the fire department responded on Tuesday, followed by several more engineers, provincial government representatives and WorkSafeBC.
“They’re still looking at the building itself and we’re hopeful we’re going to find out something soon.”
Serbic said the fire department has been working with the SPCA to make sure all pets are accounted for and being taken care of, and has also picked up medication for tenants who left it behind. “We’re just managing things for people.”
Asking people to evacuate can be difficult, he said.
“They have a lot of questions, they don’t want to leave,” Serbic said. “But we don’t have the exact answers that the people that live here are looking for.”
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