Businesses hurt by B.C. Hydro vault explosion await compensation, accountability

Remembering the February evening when an exploding B.C. Hydro electrical vault injured two people and set his Burrard Street business on fire brings a sense of terror to John Neate.

The JJ Bean Coffee CEO believes had the vault blown a few hours earlier, there was a good chance some of his customers would have been killed.

"Anyone sitting on that patio, they would have been incinerated. It was very violent," said Neate. "To be the owner of a business that somebody [could have been] killed at is a pretty awful thought."

The blast on Feb. 26 sent flames four storeys into the sky and up the side of the historic Marine Building, damaging a number of businesses.

On Thursday, B.C. Hydro CEO Chris O'Riley apologized for the explosion, revealing the underground vault had been flagged as dangerous in 2016 but was never fixed due to a series of bureaucratic bungles.

"I take responsibility on behalf of B.C. Hydro," said O'Riley. "There's no excuse for not acting sooner."

Neate said he never knewthere was an electrical vault under the sidewalk only inches from his business until it exploded and was never informed by the city.

And while he was happy to hear O'Riley accept blame, he can't help but wonder how fixing the faulty vault fell through the cracks for so long, leaving the public in so much danger.

Electrical explosion erupts in fire in downtown Vancouver

2 years ago

Duration 0:11

Dash-cam video from Xiaohongshu user @JZ captures a massive explosion and fireball on Burrard Street as bystanders scramble for cover. Officials suspect the blast originated in an electrical vault.

"Somebody screwed up big time," he said. "Given it's a Crown corporation there probably should be some sort of further investigation. I'm not sure the senior people should be let off the hook."

B.C. Hydro said in a statement it has not been contacted by the two people who were injured, "but we are here to work with them when they are ready."

Both the Crown corporation and the City of Vancouver say they have not received any notice of lawsuits.

Neate is hoping for a fair compensation package from B.C. Hydro and his insurer, although he's skeptical his business losses will be fully covered.

Same for Tractor Foods co-founder Steve Clarke whose Tractor Marine restaurant has been closed for four months because of the explosion.

"We are hoping B.C. Hydro will provide compensation to help cover the cost and disruption to our restaurant and team. Hydro had indicated that nothing would be done until an investigation was complete," said Clarke in a statement.

In a statement B.C. Hydro said it had settled with two of the businesses affected and is waiting for the others to complete restoration work "to understand the full scope of their claims before we compensate them."

According to O'Riley, a third-party investigation found the fire and explosion was caused by a buildup of gasses from a leaking gasket in the lid of an oil-filled switch.

He said 14 vaults, including the one on Burrard Street that exploded, were identified in an internal assessment as high-risk in 2016. The assessment said failure to replace them could result in severe injury or death.

The assessment recommended the vault be updated by 2018, and while the utility said it moved to do so, the work never happened.