....

Peeb · Dec 9, 2016

Wow! So sorry to hear that.

What a nightmare.

vintagesnaps · Dec 9, 2016

Oh Barb, that's awful. I hope they're able to recover files etc. especially being of medical importance. Maybe the water damage won't make for a total loss of paperwork if the fire didn't destroy it. Glad you're safe and things get worked out for your workplace.

limr · Dec 9, 2016

Oh that's awful! I'm so sorry

Rick50 · Dec 9, 2016

Oh my gosh!

Raj_55555 · Dec 10, 2016

symplybarb said:
It was after i left and everyone is safe. First floor destroyed. We are on the second floor. Heavy smoke on our floor and we are assuming water damage. Probably structural damage as well. I process about 100 applications a day for genetic and medical treatment out of country/out of province care for Ontario patients. Many are life/death situations. I'm just devastated. They will have to relocate us for now. We are essential services. I can't even wrap my head around it. We have over 50,000 paper files. I can't post pictures from this stupid tablet but if you are on twitter, you can see it at @ygktraffic.

That's horrible.. glad that you're safe at least. How is it going to be handled, I hope there were digital records of those paper files for the sake of those patients..

snowbear · Dec 10, 2016

I can't fathom recovering from this. Thankfully no one was hurt.

otherprof · Dec 10, 2016

symplybarb said:
It was after i left and everyone is safe. First floor destroyed. We are on the second floor. Heavy smoke on our floor and we are assuming water damage. Probably structural damage as well. I process about 100 applications a day for genetic and medical treatment out of country/out of province care for Ontario patients. Many are life/death situations. I'm just devastated. They will have to relocate us for now. We are essential services. I can't even wrap my head around it. We have over 50,000 paper files. I can't post pictures from this stupid tablet but if you are on twitter, you can see it at @ygktraffic.

I hope the damage is much less than you anticipate, both physically and in terms of its effect on your patients. I think you are probably in shock, literally, and should not trust your own judgement or assessment for a while. Also, I'm hoping that while the 50,000 paper files are important - or they wouldn't have been saved - most of them are not of life and death importance in an urgent way. Something terrible happened but I'm hoping it turns out less terrible than it appears now. Anyway, here's hoping.

astroNikon · Dec 10, 2016

Saw the pictures. Quite devastating especially the first floor section that was engulfed in flames. No Fire sprinklers ?? Seeing flames like that are quite scary and intense.

pjaye · Dec 10, 2016

I still can't wrap my head around what happened. We do know that the southeast end of the building is gutted. That was Ontario Disability office and our in house tech support. That side is just completely gutted. Most of the first floor is burnt. The flames reached the third floor on the exterior. I could see our file room from outside and it *looks* like it didn't get burnt (we are on the second floor, directly above where the fire started). But there's heavy smoke up there and we are assuming some water damage. They had an emergency management meeting this morning to come up with a contingency plan. We simply can't not do our job. Patient's will die if we aren't there to process. We are a small unit, only 7 people but we are extremely busy. One of the other units deals with ontario patients health insurance eligibility. Again, they have to be able to process applications. We expected to be relocated to another building in town, however, we have no idea what, if anything, that we will be able to get from our offices. The files are critical. Especially the cancer ones.

otherprof said:
I hope the damage is much less than you anticipate, both physically and in terms of its effect on your patients. I think you are probably in shock, literally, and should not trust your own judgement or assessment for a while. Also, I'm hoping that while the 50,000 paper files are important - or they wouldn't have been saved - most of them are not of life and death importance in an urgent way. Something terrible happened but I'm hoping it turns out less terrible than it appears now. Anyway, here's hoping.

I've worked this job for 10 years. I know what effect this is going to have on Ontario patients. We are funding out of country treatments for, among other things, cancer treatments. Treatments that these patients need or they will die. And these treatments are $400,000 to over a million $. Patients certainly can't afford it and out of country facilities (all over the world) won't treat the patients without funding from us . We are hoping to be able to send someone in once the building is deemed safe to grab at least the current files

astroNikon said:
Saw the pictures. Quite devastating especially the first floor section that was engulfed in flames. No Fire sprinklers ?? Seeing flames like that are quite scary and intense.

Interestingly, the building owner had just put out a new tender for fire inspection and safety equipment. I talked to the security guard who was there. He said that smoke just started billowing down the hall and then a window blew out. I don't understand how the fire alarm didn't go off long before that. Hopefully I will find out tomorrow.

robbins.photo · Dec 10, 2016

symplybarb said:
It was after i left and everyone is safe. First floor destroyed. We are on the second floor. Heavy smoke on our floor and we are assuming water damage. Probably structural damage as well. I process about 100 applications a day for genetic and medical treatment out of country/out of province care for Ontario patients. Many are life/death situations. I'm just devastated. They will have to relocate us for now. We are essential services. I can't even wrap my head around it. We have over 50,000 paper files. I can't post pictures from this stupid tablet but if you are on twitter, you can see it at @ygktraffic.

Very sorry to hear that Barn, just glad everyone is ok

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

SquarePeg · Dec 10, 2016

Glad you're safe. Sorry to hear about the damage. Terrible time of year to have to deal with all that.

pjaye · Dec 10, 2016

astroNikon said:
Saw the pictures. Quite devastating especially the first floor section that was engulfed in flames. No Fire sprinklers ?? Seeing flames like that are quite scary and intense.

So your question made me ask some questions. No sprinklers in the building. On of the people who came in to do the quote last week told me tonight. I can't fathom why there were no sprinklers.

We are getting update tomorrow by management, but as of right now, the damage is very extensive and we will be moved to a temporary location. This is going to be a nightmare.

vintagesnaps · Dec 11, 2016

Makes you wonder how up to code the building was, and it's a good thing nobody was in there at the time. I hope things get figured out and you get settled in at least temporarily someplace soon.