City crews and firefighters will remove a car stuck in a downtown business in Courtenay.
According to Deputy Fire Chief of the Courtenay Fire Department Jonathan Welsh, the incident took place at around 4:00 p.m. on September 11 where a car lost control and crashed into the wall of Design Therapy, a retail store located at 291 Fifth Street.
He says up to seven or eight firefighters arrived at the scene to assess the situation.
“We started assessing the building based on structural integrity and aired on the side of caution, and we evacuated the building from that point,” said Welsh.
Welsh says while no one was injured, including the driver, the incident was a near-miss and could have been disastrous for those walking on the sidewalk and the people shopping inside the store that day.
He says there’s a structure out on the sidewalk, which has the car inside, still lodged in that wall.
“It’s gone through an abatement process just to make sure there’s no asbestos in the walls before construction goes on,” said Welsh.
“There are a few different variables in play here such as structural integrity, the asbestos, and ultimately the removal of the car. We’ll have a crew go down there and visualize it.”
He adds once they finish analyzing the asbestos, crews aim to remove the car in the next day or two and shore up the building to avoid a potential collapse after removing the car.
The incident has resulted in the store being closed, with more work needing to be done before it can re-open to the public.
