Structural damage a concern

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This article was published 09/09/2023 (991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A natural gas line explosion that rocked the city’s Civic Services Complex Thursday evening may have resulted in some structural instability, although the full extent of the damage still isn’t known at this time.

Patrick Pulak, Brandon’s general manager of operations, provided the Sun with this update Friday afternoon, revealing that a structural engineer began assessing the complex earlier that morning.

“Initial reports are that the damage is more extensive than what we initially thought and that there was some damage to the structural elements of the building,” Pulak stated.

“That said, the investigation is extending into this afternoon. The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether or not we can occupy or partially occupy the building come next week.”

Brandon police and firefighters responded to calls of an explosion at the Civic Services Complex around 6 p.m. Thursday.

When the Sun arrived at the scene around 7 p.m., one city employee had already been transported to the hospital to treat their injuries from the explosion.

Pulak confirmed that the employee was transported to Winnipeg to treat non-life-threatening burns and is in stable condition.

In terms of what triggered this explosion, Pulak said the Office of the Fire Commissioner still hasn’t determined an exact cause.

However, at this point, Pulak believes that the blast originated from the building’s mechanical room and caused a concussive wave that put major strain on surrounding support structures.

“What we’re looking at is the damage to some of the cinder block walls that have been showing some stress from the explosion,” he said. “My concern is always with the load-bearing walls that support the ceiling structure. And when there’s damage to those, your concern is of collapse.”

While the Civic Services Complex remained closed to the public on Friday, Pulak doesn’t anticipate that the explosion and subsequent investigation will significantly disrupt city services.

“We’ll have to provide an alternate avenue for residents who were visiting the office for business, like dropping off receipts,” he said.

“Besides that … the administrative staff will have to move, but those operations will continue to remain the same, whether it be transit, streets and roads or snow plowing.”

Pulak and his team will be meeting over the weekend to go over the results of the structural engineer’s assessment and determine a clearer course of action when it comes to repairing the Civic Services Centre.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com