'The whole building is a block of ice,' says neighbour of evacuated apartment building

Dave Burns has lived in his single-family home next to the small, brick apartment building at 246 Montcalm Ave. for about three decades. 

He describes that apartment building in the Uptown neighbourhood near Marymount College and Collège Notre-Dame as “a beautiful building” and “historic.”

But the building was condemned Saturday morning by local emergency personnel after they realized the structure had no heat, water or working fire alarms. 

Its residents were evacuated and are now housed in a local hotel by the Red Cross.

Burns said he believes the building was recently owned by the late James Waddell of Sudbury, but the structure may have been sold. Waddell, described in his obituary as having been involved in real estate, passed away Dec. 31.

“He was unable to maintain the building,” he said. “What happened was subsequently the heating system and the water system failed. The end result is everything froze, and people had to be removed from the building.

“It's been a problematic building for about six or seven months.”

Burns describes the building as “uninhabitable,” adding that “the whole building is a block of ice.”

When Sudbury.com visited the building Saturday afternoon, one of its doors and several windows were boarded up. A Greater Sudbury Police Service vehicle was patrolling the neighbourhood.

It was a visit by Greater Sudbury Police officers to the building Saturday morning on an unrelated matter that led to the building being condemned.

“They observed what they felt was an unsafe situation,” said Greater Sudbury Police Staff Sgt. Daryl Adams.

“They were correct in requesting fire assistance to attend and assess, at which time they formally condemned the structure, as it was unsafe to live in.”

The building's heating system was out of order but the electricity was still functioning, so people had their ovens turned on with the doors open to heat their units. 

Despite this makeshift heating situation, the building was still extremely cold, Adams said.

“We've all heard the horror stories of what could happen and what has happened when people attempt to heat their homes in an unsafe manner,” he said. “We diverted that today.”

Adams said he's not sure how long the building's roughly 10 inhabitants were given to gather their belongings, but said it was evacuated by this afternoon. The residents have been temporarily housed at a hotel.

“The Red Cross has stepped in,” he said. “They haven't been left on the street. Now community services are stepping in to assist on this, and we also have other officers who will continue to see if there's more police involvement or interaction required.”

As for the building's owner, Adams said police are still trying to determine exactly who that is. 

“We need to verify who actually owns the building and we won't find that confirmed until Monday,” he said. “But we are looking into that.”