Engineers work on plan to prevent further collapse of building

“With all the weight still there, it’s still a precarious condition,” he said.

Engineers from Vancouver’s Kramer Gehlen & Associates, Inc. are working with city engineers to develop a plan to shore up the entire building. They conducted a brief survey of the building, accessing it from the east side.

“Our immediate goal is to prevent further collapse and remove the excess weight,” Thirunagari said. One option is to send someone into the area on a boom lift and remove each ingot one at a time; Thirunagari described the lead ingots as oversized bricks. He added the team also wants to either relocate the chemicals or “put some shoring around the chemicals so that if there’s further failure, it does not cause a hazmat situation.” Portable mechanical ventilation will help air out the lower level.

That process, he said, is going to be a tricky one and equated it to the game Minesweeper.

“We’ll start in an area that’s sort of safe to install the shoring,” he said.

Owner speaks

The building owner, Joel Scott, has been pleased with the way officials have handled the emergency response and started the building restoration process.

“We want to keep going and I don’t want to lose my tenant,” Scott said.

The building, built in 1949, was designed by his father and grandfather, who wanted the building close to the railway, so that heavy materials could be delivered into the basement by railcar. However, the railroad spur used to access the building was removed, changing the way heavy materials — such as lead — are delivered and stored in the building, Scott said.

Scott entered negotiations in late 2011 with BNSF Railway, which wanted to purchase property on the west end of the building, next to the existing rails.

After BNSF acquired the property and construction started, this made the space behind the building even narrower and took away the loading dock. As a result, tractor-trailers cannot access the west end of the building.

The lead was originally stored in the basement, but after the loading dock was removed, there was no way to get it out of the basement, Scott said. So, it was brought up to the main floor, where it could be taken through the east entrance.

He said the changes to the way materials are stored in the building has been detrimental to Vancouver Warehouse & Distribution Co., which has been a tenant for more than three decades. The elevator can’t handle repeatedly taking heavy loads through the building’s three floors. Heavy materials are typically stored on the main floor.

Eventually, Scott said, there will be a wall that separates the railway from the building.

Valuable lesson

Tuesday’s emergency response headed by the Vancouver Fire Department reminded the responding firefighters that their specialized training is valuable, even if it isn’t used every day. The technical rescue team is trained to determine building integrity and, if possible, stabilize the building, said Division Chief Steve Eldred.

“It’s not too common to have this type of problem that included hazmat,” Eldred said.

Incident commanders periodically addressed the emergency response plan during the incident, which included where to put people and equipment. Keeping everyone — including engineers, building owners and city officials — informed about any changes to the plan was critical.

Firefighters finished up at the warehouse Tuesday evening, but Eldred said the agency will stay in touch with the companies involved in the cleanup.

The bulk of the agency’s hazardous materials team equipment and members are housed out of Station 1, less than a block from Vancouver Warehouse & Distribution Co. The station is strategically placed in Vancouver’s industrial area, where buildings tend to house more chemicals than other parts of the city.