Firestone plant 'explorers' paradise
'City considers $3-million demolition to stop them
June 15, 2009
Dana Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/583649
Urban explorers have been having their way with the old, abandoned former Firestone plant.
And that's making the city nervous about potential liability issues.
The explorers -- a breed of adventurers who seek thrills among structures and nooks off-limits or unseen in the urban landscape -- have been finding a way into the 552,000-square-foot plant and documenting their travels with photos.
Those pictures, along with comments about the adventures, have ended up online, which is where city staff found them a few months back.
Now, staff are asking councillors to approve moving forward on strategies to secure and demolish the plant, which sits on the same site as city recycling and composting facilities.
To properly secure the plant, which has an office tower and a flooded basement, would cost $150,000 to $200,000 annually. A demolition is estimated at $2.5- to $3-million.
"We have a responsibility to ensure that the site is secured," said Rom D'Angelo, manager of corporate buildings and technical services with the city.
"In my opinion, it is secured and these people are trespassing on that property."
On a website called Infiltration, explorers have posted photos of the inside of the abandoned plant. They depict peeling walls, an abandoned phone, old wiring and crisply-lit factories seen through the broken windows of the structure.
But while explorers may not been seeking anything sinister, the city says it's worried about its potentially liability.
Noting that many of the intruders are likely teenagers or young adults, a single injury worst-case scenario could run the city well over $1 million, a staff report says.
The former Firestone plant, located on Burlington Street near Kenilworth Avenue North, was closed in 1988. The property was bought in 1991 by Philip Enterprises Inc., but was transferred to the city as part of a negotiated settlement in 2001.
D'Angelo said there is a fence around the perimeter of the site and security patrols are doing rounds by the abandoned plant, as well as the city doing some boarding up and fencing of doors and gaps.
"The property's pretty big, it's kind of impossible to secure that, but we do have a fence around the whole property," he said.
Councillor Sam Merulla, whose ward includes the plant, said he's behind a demolition, the price tag of which would be an investment for the future.
"I think anything that contributes to a renewal of old brownfield sites and that of old industrial sites, obviously is a positive step forward," he said.
City staff are asking that $400,000 in available funds from another demolition project be used toward the former Firestone plant.
The report will be presented today at a public works committee meeting.
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I remember alot of tenants started to leave by around 1991, I can remember someone saying it was due to the fact that repairs not being done e.t.c...some of them just got fed up I guess..
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