WFCU Centre update

CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco looks into how bad the water damage is at the WFCU Centre.

Since a morning fire at the WFCU Centre in late April, the city says damage assessment has been ongoing.

“Losing an ice pad is devastating to our inventory,” acknowledged Michael Chantler, commissioner of city services.

“As we kind of peel back the layers, we are discovering exactly what has happened to the building and as a result of what has happened so far, it looks like we’re going to lose at least the season coming up.”

A lot of water was poured on the fire. Initially, the thought was the roof wasn’t breached. However, it was, and a lot of water made its way inside. The two community rinks next to the AM800 rink were also damaged but not as significantly.

“All of the insulation was soaked, so there’s significant water damage. There may have been extensive damage to the air handlers as well, so we’re working on the air handlers in that area as well,” Chantler said to CTV News.

Remediation is being scheduled on both rinks, perhaps on a rotating basis to avoid too much interruption.

As for the AM800 rink, windows are covered with no access to the rink as the investigation continues. “You can’t get up and just fix the roof like a traditional roof, so we are actually going to fix the roof from the inside working up,” said Chantler.

The plan is to investigate damage from both sides of the roof to determine the overall damage, and that is expected to take time. “The actual roof structure itself, and there’s multiple layers to the membranes that protect it, but it’s been completely destroyed in some areas,” said Chantler.

The initial damage was estimated to be about a million dollars, but city officials expect that number to climb significantly.

“There are a number of people that have to get in there and do their investigations to find cause, to find what equipment was involved. They’re all entitled to have a certain period of time to be in there to do that and so that is the stage we’re in right now,” Chantler said.