AMHERST, N.S. – Amherst has run into a bit of a delay as it has a building demolished on Station Street.
Amherst CAO Greg Herrett said Tuesday that the contractor, John Baxter, came across approximately 20, four-litre cans of what appears to be camping fuel.
“The Department of Environment is there, the Department of Labour and Advanced Education is there and we are getting a plan from the contractor for him to remove those safely so there’s no harm the environment, our employees or the contractor’s employees,” Herrett said. “We don’t think this is a major issue, but we’re doing our due diligence.”
Baxter Trucking began demolishing the building on Friday, but stopped when it discovered the containers of an unknown liquid. Herrett said there is no danger to the public.
Ideally, he said, an inspection of the building’s interior would have been completed by demolition, but the building was in such bad shape that it wasn’t safe to do so.
“The building had deteriorated to the point that it wasn’t safe to go in and do a hazard assessment up front,” Herrett said. “Normally, when we are demolishing a building, the contractor or our staff would take a safe walk through, but that roof was collapsing. It wasn’t safe to go in and do that.”
Herrett is not sure when work will resume, but he hopes it’s soon.
“It's not complicated, but we want to be safe so we’re doing our due diligence just to make sure,” he said.
Twitter: @ADNdarrell
