Home | WebMail | Register or Login

      Calgary | Regions | Local Traffic Report | Advertise on Action News | Contact

NL

This blast shelter business on the Burin Peninsula is expecting a boom

A Burin Peninsula business is expected to see a sales boom in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, while many others across Newfoundland and Labrador remain shuttered as a way to prevent the virus from spreading.

Company shifting focus to build field hospitals

Dynamic Air Shelters is based in Calgary but its products are manufactured in Grand Bank. (Submitted by Dynamic Air Shelters)

A Burin Peninsula business is expectingto see a sales boom in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, while many others across Newfoundland and Labrador remain shuttered as a way to prevent the virus from spreading.

Dynamic Air Shelters hasbeen manufacturinginGrand Bank for 20 years.

The company buildsindustrial blast shelters, but has reverted to buildingemergency field hospitals, which is how it began.

"They're not like a tent, although they look like a tent, and they're manufactured obviously to be what we call a temporary structure. But in essence they outlive many of the people that I know today," David Quick, CEO ofDynamic Air Shelters, told CBC Radio's On The Go.

David Quick, CEO of Dynamic Air Shelters, said his company expects a boom in sales for its emergency field hospitals. (Submitted by Liz Floyd)

The company's structures can fit1,084 people in its largest builds, according to its website.

Quick said the businesshas been fielding calls from around the globe in recent weeks, while the employees at the Grand Bank facility have been practising how to build the structures with physical distancing measures in mind.

He said one of the benefits of the Grand Bank facility is the amount of space it has, andthe emergency shelters are much smaller to construct.

"But it's such a clean facility anyway. I would eat off the floor in Grand Bank. They keep it so well," Quick said.

Dynamic Air Shelters specializes in industrial blast shelters, but has shifted gears into building emergency field hospitals. (Submitted by Dynamic Air Shelters)

The Grand Bank plant employs 47 people. Quick said it's going to stay that way, unless business really does take off, in which case he wants to bring more people on board.

However, no purchase orders have been placed just yet,said Quick. But he's adamant on helping out where he can during the global pandemic.

"I'm anticipating keeping the folks working for the next few weeks, for sure, to build up the inventory," said Quick. "I'm like every other company in Canada. I'm keen to get inand support and help, of course, people globally."

Read morefrom CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

With files from On The Go