NEWS photo Terry Peters

Grand-daddy tanker

THE LARGEST tanker ever to visit the Port of Vancouver sailed into Burrard in- let fast Thursday and was dry-docked at North Vancouver’s Versatile Pacific Shipyards Ltd. The American Trader, owned by New York-based American Trading and Transportation Co., is 37,209 tonnes and has a dead weight of $2,030 tonnes. The tanker, which is at Versatile for steel repairs, is 249 metres long, 38 metres wide and 17.6 metres deep. It contains 15 cargo tanks and was

built in the United States in 1969.

Labor hearing adjourned in CN employee discipline case

A CANADA Labor Relations Board (CLRB) hearing was called Monday to hear an appeal from a North Vancouver

Canadian National

Railways

(CN) worker who was

disciplined for refusing to handle two rail cars full of lig-

uid chlorine.

But the hearing was adjourned the same day it began, and no fu.ure daic has been sec for a new hewring.

Lawyer Shona Moore, repre- senting the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, local 945 and CN employee Ron Dumont, told CLRB hearing chairman Calvin Davis that she needed more time to prepare her case.

Dumont said he refused to move two train cars loaded with chlorine on Nov. 15, 1990 from CN’s Lynn Creek yard in North Vancouver uni! a proper physical brake inspection had been carried out by a qualified car inspector.

“I believe that it is both unsafe and unlawful to move a train be- tween Lynn Creek and Sapperton (near Coquitlam) without knowing that 85 per cent of the brakes are operative,"’ Dumont stated in a letter to A.E. Bartlett of Trans-

By Surj Rattan News Reporter

port Canada, ‘There is no other way that it can be determined that a train has 85 per cent of the brakes operative, or that two cars with inoperative brakes are coupl- ed together, than to walk (around) the train."”

But Bartlett, in a letter to Du- mont, said his investigation show- ed “conclusively that the pro- cedures were properly complied with and that no defects were present on these cars."’

The union and Dumont are ap- pealing Bartlett’s ruling.

Moore argued that Bartlett was wrong in his decision not to order a physical brake test of the two cars.

“It’s a review of a decision of a safety officer that this train be

moved 16 miles through a heavily populated area. We say the means of transporting this chlorine train is unsafe,’ said Moore. ‘We say the safety officer was simply wrong.”

But CN lawyer Duncan McPhail objecied to the adjournment and said it was the third time Dumont had attempted to have the hearing adjourned.

“Employees should not be using their right of refusal (to work) to bring about safety campaigns. If the complainant seriously con- tends there is a safety risk then it is incumbent upon us to proceed right now,’’ said McPhail. ‘*My client takes the position that the transfer of these trains is absolute- ly safe.”

Davis said he ‘‘was not happy about these proceedings.”*

“tv's them or us. We've been battling to keep that out of this forum. I’m not pleased that we're looking some ways down the road (for another hearing),’’ said Davis. ‘“‘This board does not have a mandate to change regulations. The question in my eyes is was the work properly performed?”

Sunday, January 27, 1991 - North Shore News - 3

Fire-loss

amount hits $2.5m

THE TOTAL loss resulting from an Oct. 18 arson fire at a West Vancouver mov- ing and storage facility has been pegged at $2.5 million.

By Michael Becker News Reporter

Because of the nature of the fire, wrangling over the issue of insurance liability continues for the owner of Ferguson Moving and Storage and the scores of clients whose possessions — in- cluding valuable antiques and art — were destroyed in the fire.

Several of the fire-lass victims are exploring the option of laun- ching a group legal action against Ferguson.

Meanwhile the owner -has ap- plied to the municipality for a de- velopment permit application to build another storage facility on the Marine Drive site.

Said Ferguson Moving and Storage owner Paul Reano, ‘‘! would think some people will take us to court over this, but there is nothing concrete yet.

“The arson aspect of it is really a grey area. I’m not too impressed with the insurance response to this, including our own (insurer). We're struggling to get our own pay-out on this,”’ he added.

Reano estimates his company’s loss at between $406,000 and $500,000.

The moving and storage com- pany’s standard storage rate to clients included a maximum liabil- ity of $1.32 per kilogram per arti- cle. The company also offered the option of additional insurance.

But a fire victim who estimates that she fost $15,000 worth of goods in ithe Ferguson blaze has been unable to recover any of her loss despite having purchased some additional insurance through Ferguson.

In au earlier News story, an in- surance adjuster handling the in- surance case for Ferguson argued that the company should not be found liable for arson losses.

But *ccording to Reano, some of the fire victims have been able to collect on ‘floater policies’? at- tached to home insurance policies.

Reano claims his company

W. Van storage facility clients still await reimbursement

worked with ‘‘the best coverage in the industry as far as general in- surance coverage.””

Brian Stanhope, vice-president of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, said if fire loss coverage is included in a policy then set- tlements should be available regardless of how a fire has oc- curred.

The Ferguson fire broke out at about 2 a.m. on Oct. 18. Police investigators found a pane of glass had been taken out of a door that nad been locked earlier.

Reano was alerted to the fire when a friend, who monitors ernergency radio frequencies on a scanner, heard the fire departmeni dispatch.

Said Reano, ‘You look after people’s goods and make sure that everything is up to standards, We never thought once of an arson. You never think of people pur- posefully burning a place down. People talk about sleepless nights. } don’t go through a minute of the day — it’s like a toothache. If J could rectify it monetarily, | would. But the fire has devastated the company. [t kills you. We're just staying afloat.”

Some of Reano’s former clients criticize Ferguson for not having had a sprinkler system installed in the 60-year-old wooden building.

But Reano said a_ sprinkler system was not required in the building because it was an older building.

“If they (the fire department) had come to us five or 10 years ago and said this building should be sprinklered, we would have done it. It's a big cost, but we weren't required (to have the sprinklers installed),”’ he ssid.

A new building could be in place by September. The fire department is recommending that the structure be fully sprinklered. The police department is recom- mending the installation of a monitored alarm system and that all exterior doors and door frames be made of steel.

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Weather Sunday and Monday, mostly cloudy with a chance of flurries or showers. Highs 3-5°C; lows near -2°C. Tuesday, periods of rain.

Highs, 6°C: low -1'C.

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