“This is not something we strive to do — the last option is to displace people."
CORNWALL — It was a moving day Kirk Brown did not see coming, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“No I’m not — I’m still in shock,” said Brown, sitting in his wheelchair on Friday morning in a driveway area of the Care Centre property just off Second Street.
Brown said he moved into the facility last October, and it was Thursday morning when firefighters and police officers told the dozens of residents there they would have to vacate the premises by late afternoon Friday.
“They walked in (Thursday morning) and it was like, ‘Boom, done, gotta move out,'” he said.
The Ontario Fire Marshal’s office gave Cornwall Fire Services authority to close the Care Centre, at 510 Second St.: the former Cornwall General Hospital. Cornwall Fire Services said it had conducted several fire-safety inspections within the building, identifying numerous serious violations under the Ontario Fire Code that would increase the risk of injury.
On Friday, the city’s human services department, Cornwall police, firefighters and Cornwall Transit vehicles were on site all day, assisting residents in the moving process.
“They have places to go to,” fire chief Matthew Stephenson said.
Brown, watching the proceedings from outside in some disbelief, expressed frustration and skepticism about the immediate future.
“I like it here,” Brown said. “The rent is good, it’s quiet, there’s no hassle. I’d rather live here than anywhere else … My rent will be going way up.”
Brown says he’s unemployed, collects Ontario disability, and “I’m just trying to survive. I don’t know where I’ll be going, but it needs to be somewhere. I’d go as far as Belleville to live, I guess.”
Brown said that he lived on the third floor in the north end of the building and that for the past few weeks he’d been mostly confined to his floor as there were no working elevators.
He said he made it downstairs, and outdoors, by sliding down the stairwell: feet and knees first.
Stephenson was asked about the elevator situation during a Friday morning news conference at the downtown fire hall. He said there were two elevators in the building, but one had been out of service for a long period of time. The other elevator, after an incident that required a fire service response, was tagged out of service several weeks ago by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority.
Stephenson said he didn’t have an exact count of the number of residents being moved, but that it was in the range of 40-50. As of late Friday morning, he said residents were moving out, and that the process would go on until late afternoon.
“We will be closing the building (Friday),” he said. “This is not something we strive to do — the last option is to displace people. We understand the physical and mental stress it poses on the residents.”
But he said it was a necessary move, that “we have the duty to prevent fires and ensure the safety of residents.”
A CTV News reporter asked Stephenson to respond to complaints that the closing was part of a long vendetta the city had against the Care Centre.
Stephenson said he was not from the Cornwall area and had been in the city for less than two years.
“I have no history with this city, or the building itself,” he said. “As the fire chief, I’m here to ensure the safety of the residents.”
Stephenson said the statement by the city on Thursday was intended to get ahead of the story and any potential false information about what was an “unfortunate operation that we have to conduct.”
He said residents included ambulatory and non-ambulatory, and the service had a duty to act through the Ontario Fire Code.
This move marked the latest challenge for the centre, which has offered a variety of tenancies and services since its current owners purchased the former hospital site in July 2014.
Cornwall Fire Services said the fire-safety violations under the Ontario Fire Code triggered its request to the Ontario Fire Marshal for authority to close the building to all tenancies.
thambleton@postmedia.com
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