The restoration company is on their way right now (Monday morning) so we hope to open again later this week.
We will continue to work from outside the office, we appreciate your patience.
And finally, thanks to all of you for the well-wishes and concerns - we are all fine and we feel incredibly fortunate that things turned out so well under the circumstances! We will be back hard at work within a few days.
Cheers, Lana
MLA Popham gets 'lucky' with minimal fire damage to office
BY Larissa Johnston, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Lana Popham's worries were eased when she returned to her Quadra Street constituency office Monday morning.
The Saanich South MLA's office was the site of a roof fire Saturday night, but there wasn't much damage to her building, she said Monday afternoon.
"We're very, very lucky." The landlords spent Sunday cleaning water off the floor. One cubicle office was quite smoky and a restoration crew will be in today to clean the building.
At the time of the fire, Popham was in Kamloops for the annual Farms 2 Chefs agriculture and culinary event.
Even if there had been extensive damage, the office is almost paperless with everything on computer backed up remotely, Popham said. She noted that her greatest concern had been original art from local artists.
Two engines, a ladder truck, rescue command and a dozen firefighters from the Saanich fire department responded to the fire at 4085 Quadra St. around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
There were no injuries, but fire crews remained on site for several hours. The fire was contained to the roof, causing an estimated $10,000 in damage.
Popham learned about the fire from her son, Kye, who called around 11: 30 Saturday night.
Her husband Jon works at the Oak Bay fire department and heard the dispatch to the Saanich department and asked Kye to make the call to his mom.
The building is also shared by the Peninsula Denture Clinic.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
ljohnston@timescolonist.com
- With files from Kathryn Burnham
Fire at Saanich South MLA's office
Lana Popham will have an unpleasant sight when she gets back to her office Monday — the Saanich South MLA’s constituency office was the site of a roof fire over the weekend.
But Popham, who was in Kamloops for the annual Farms 2 Chefs agriculture and culinary event, is more concerned about artwork in the office than her own work.
“We do display art from local artists on our walls and I am quite worried about that at the moment,” she said in an online interview Sunday evening before boarding a plane from Kamloops to Vancouver.
The office is almost paperless and everything on the computer is backed up on a central server, making it unlikely they would lose any important files, even if there were fire damage, she said.
Two engines, a ladder truck, rescue command and a dozen firefighters from the Saanich fire department responded to the fire at 4085 Quadra St. around 11 p.m. Saturday night.
There were no injuries, but fire crews remained on site for several hours. The fire was contained to the roof, causing an estimated $10,000 in damage, although what was affected inside is yet to be seen by the occupants.
Popham learned about the fire from her son, Kye, who called around 11:30 Saturday night and said, “Mom, your office is on fire.”
Popham's husband works at the Oak Bay fire department and heard the call to the Saanich department, and asked Kye to make the call to his mom.
Popham had several calls back and forth with the Saanich fire department and they assured her by 12:30 a.m. that the office was secure.
There was fire damage to the roof and most likely only water damage inside, they told her.
The building is also shared by Peninsula Denture Clinic, which was not open Sunday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but construction was being done on the roof at the time.
Popham said she will check it out first thing Monday morning.
kburnham@timescolonist.com
ljohnston@timescolonist.com
