Hundreds of conference delegates were forced to evacuate Vancouver's new convention centre yesterday after a water-main leak flooded two floors of the waterfront steel-wood-and-glass building.
A 1,000-delegate Public Service Alliance of Canada convention was 20 minutes away from starting its 9 a.m. opening ceremonies when water began gushing from the ceiling and seeping through the wall and carpets of 10 to 12 meeting rooms and a section of the West English Bay Ballroom.
"The water was coming through the ceiling," said PSAC national president John Gordon, who was in a meeting room at the time. "We're not talking drips. It's torrents of water."
Delegates had to be evacuated, while some equipment, including simultaneous-translation devices, got wet.
Convention-centre officials estimate the leak began around 6:30 a.m. when a 15-centimetre water-main joint in a second-floor mechanical room failed.
The glitch affected about 8,000 square feet of meeting space and forced the cancellation of the day's sessions, much to the frustration of organizers.
"It's a pretty big glitch," said Gordon. "I've attended conventions larger than even ours in newer buildings and have not experienced this type of problem before. This is kind of tragic for us."
Yesterday afternoon, crews were still extracting water from carpets using fans and dehumidifiers. A few buckets were scattered across the second-floor lobby to catch wayward drops.
Convention-centre general manager Ken Cretney said the damage was limited to water damage and he doesn't expect costs to be excessive.
"There's no injuries or permanent damage, just a lot of cleanup," he said.
Cretney said the leak was not due to shoddy construction. "It can happen anywhere, anytime, new or old buildings."
The PSAC convention is the second major conference held at the $883-million convention centre, which opened this month.
http://www.theprovince.com/conventio...865/story.html 
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