October 29, 2012

Guilty plea entered in wind debris case

Arte Roofing & Construction Inc was charged and plead guilty to three counts of an unsafe site condition, as a result of building materials being blown off of the roof of a Carpet Mills Outlet in Calgary earlier this year.

“We are pleased with the response from Arte Roofing as they are working with us to enhance their own safety procedures,” said Kevin Griffiths, chief building official with the City of Calgary and manager of Building Regulations.

“This will help us educate other contractors and owners around the severity of having an unsafe site. We will continue to send a clear message to contractors and owners that construction site safety in Calgary must be taken seriously”.

During a severe wind storm on Jan. 9, 2012, a number of building materials blew off the roof of the Carpet Mills Outlet, including two spools of <0x00BC> inch wire cable weighing 10 to 20 lbs each and numerous 2 inch thick sheets of 4 foot by 8 foot Styrofoam insulation.

Arte Roofing was responsible for ensuring the roof replacement project and storage of materials were in a safe condition for workers, members of the public and visitors to the location. For this reason, the company was charged and plead guilty to three counts of an unsafe site condition of $10,000 each.

An investigation into the incident was undertaken by Arte Roofing, which resulted changes to their existing safety procedures for storage of materials on roofs to safeguard against the potential for similarly severe wind storms in the future.

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