Employees at Saint John Laundry ordered inside as fire alarm was going off
CUPE called Friday for an investigation into Saint John Laundry operations after employees were ordered inside the building while a fire alarm was going off.
Employee Brandon Boucher said he was on his lunch break when the alarm sounded shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Employees left the building but were ordered to go back inside once roll call was complete, about five minutes later, Boucher told the virtual news conference.
He said the fire alarm was still going off, and the Saint John Fire Department hadn't arrived on scene.
"We were pretty confused," he said.
Supervisors yelled 'get back to work'
When the employees re-entered the building, Boucher said, the front hallway was filled with water, and there was a smell of something burning.
"At that point there were supervisors yelling, 'Get back to work, get back to your work stations.'"
He said employees were yelling and questioning why they were being told to go back into a building with a fire alarm going off.
A few minutes after they arrived inside, Boucher said, another supervisor yelled for employees to get back outside.
"Then people were trying to get out of the building," he said. "Nobody knew where anybody was."
He said people were scattered everywhere. Boucher was receiving text messages from colleagues asking where he was.
Staff didn't know if there were people still inside the building at the time.
"It's extremely negligent for management to have demanded all workers go back in, minutes only after they were out, instead of waiting for firefighters," said Brent Wiggins, president of CUPE 1190. "That is truly incompetent."
Once the fire department arrived on scene, employees waited in their vehicles for about an hour.
Staff learned later that the alarm went off because a sprinkler pipe burst and flooded the front of the building.
CUPE calls for immediate termination
Valerie Kilfoil, a spokesperson for Service New Brunswick, the department that oversees the laundry facility, said employees were evacuated to the pre-established meeting points and roll call was taken.
"Regular fire drills are undertaken each year at the plant as part of the safety protocols. Dedicated staff in the building completed a scan to determine source of problem," she said in a emailed statement to CBC News.
"It was determined that there was a burst pipe linked to the fire suppression system and no other issues were determined."
Employees were told they could return inside before firefighters arrived on scene. She said employees weren't dressed for the cold and windy weather outside.
While returning inside, she said there was an "unknown odour" inside the building. But nothing visual had been identified.
"Employees were told to grab their coat, go to their vehicles and wait for further instructions," she said.
"Firefighters arrived, completed scans and determined there no other source of issues except for the burst pipe."
She said the total time of the incident lasted an hour and a half.
And once staff were allowed back inside, two employees were stationed for fire watch until the burst pipe was repaired at 2:20 p.m.
There were no injuries involved in the incident.
"As per protocol, the response to the incident will undergo a review by the Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee and any recommendations will be actioned accordingly," she said.
More than 120 CUPE members work at the plant, which does the linens for nearly half the province's nursing homes and hospitals. It recently expanded in the Moncton and Fredericton areas.
About 25 varieties of linens are processed at the plant each day. The plant uses an array of chemicals, large propane-run dryers and solvents.
The unions are calling for the immediate termination of managers who handled the incident, an investigation into the incident, the workplace and other issues with a complete report provided to the CUPE locals.
"For incidents like this to happen is just uncalled for, to put folks' safety in jeopardy," Wiggins said.
