Mayor Andrea Horwath and City Manager Marnie Cluckie attended the site of the Gore Building collapse following Monday’s Remembrance Day ceremony.
The heritage buildings at 24 and 28 King Street East collapsed at approximately 6:12 a.m. this morning. The first 9-1-1 call was placed at 6:13 a.m.
The following is an edited transcript of their remarks following their briefing.
Question: You were both just briefed by the Deputy Fire Chief and your building officials, what are you able to share with the public at this time?
Mayor Horwath:
“We were asking what they know. And they don’t know a heck of a lot.
They’re looking at the buildings next to the one. Those are the two who are falling in. That looks like those [the collapsed buildings] are not going to be able to be saved.
At least the ones that are obviously falling down have to go.
It’s a matter of public safety at this point.
I’ve asked them to try to see anything possible that is of heritage value, because I think that’s extremely important.
As far as we know, no injuries. Let’s hope it stays that way. There’s a lot of rubble on the ground, and it’s a big loss for the City.”
Question: We seem to have a lot of building collapses, we have the Tivoli that has been declared beyond saving. The City is supposed to be regularly inspecting them, I suggest the City did not do its role.
City Manager Cluckie:
“Staff were on site at this building on Friday trying to facilitate action on it.
At this time we are still investigating. Our priority is safe and well being.
As the Mayor said, secondarily, we are trying to salvage what we can.”
The building to the east (right in the image) shows damage from the initial collapse.
28 King is bulging and at risk of further collapse.
Question: In terms of reviewing these circumstances, what type of process could we be looking at in the coming weeks and months?
City Manager Cluckie:
“Certainly, I’ll be asking staff to report back on what transpired here and things that we can do from a process perspective to help facilitate quick action on matters of this nature.
But as I said, it still very early, we are very focused on safety.
I will be following up in short order.”
Question: Madam Mayor, what is your message to Hamiltonians with the collapse of the Gore Building and the Tivoli unsafe report happening both in short order?
“The message is if we want to have heritage properties survive in the city. And I think we do. I certainly do. We need to take care of them. They need to be taken care of.
That’s the responsibility of the private owners of these buildings. But as you identified, we need to look at the process this city manager identified.
We need to look at what’s happening, because there has been there have been other buildings that have fallen apart.
On King Street East, for example, the facade falling down onto the sidewalk. You have the same thing happening here.
I have to say, we all walked by this building yesterday with the Garrison parade.
There were hundreds and hundreds of people walking by that very site. I cringe at the thought of what could have happened had this had this devastating incident occurred yesterday when we had veterans and police and fire at the service.
Really, just to be honest with you, it’s just I don’t have any words for not only the great loss, but also the fact that if we don’t find a way to be more steady with our responses to these kinds of situations, and Gore Park is an active place. It’s a very important place.
If it had happened early in the morning, who knows? We could be we could be talking about something completely different. And that’s just the thought of that is just devastating.”
Question: How does this reflect on the City today, to have hundreds of people seeing this at the Remembrance ceremony. (From CBC/Radio Canada)
Mayor Horwath:
“It’s terrifying, it’s terrifying what could have happened.
Yesterday we were literally walking right past that site and that really terrifies me.
One thing for sure, though, is that this didn’t happen overnight.
This is a long history of a problem that’s occurring in this city here and at other sites.
And as the relatively new Mayor of the city and a relatively new City Manager of our city. We’re going to try to figure out, first of all, why this kept happening, why it continues to happen and hopefully prevent it from happening again.
We don’t know anything, anything at all that will help us figure that out at this moment in time. But we certainly will keep doing that work.
Every Saturday, hundreds of people are in this space, only two weeks before the collapse, a toddler’s hay maze was in the exact spot.
Question: Citing the recent BIA Halloween hay maze that was where the stone facade crashed onto the street today. Just a few weeks ago, we would have had the babies here. (From CBC/Radio Canada)
Mayor Horwath:
I don’t know what to say about that. The timing it could have been so much worse.
And I think that’s what you’re reflecting on, too, as a dad.
Yesterday, we had hundreds and hundreds of people in service, literally walking by that building. We have people in and around our downtown all the time.
But for the Grace of God, as they say, as far as we know at this point, there are no injuries.
Production Details v. 1.0.0 Published: November 11, 2024 Last updated: November 11, 2024 Author: Joey Coleman Update Record v. 1.0.0 original version v. 1.1.0 CORRECTION: the municipal street addresses are 24 and 28 King Street East. The initial version incorrectly stated 20 and 24 King East.