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insurance debt in fires wake by maxine share although tuesdays fire rep resents at least a 5 million loss to the insurance industry the president of travellers canada says premiums for new home developments may not be affected daniel damov whose com pany insured canada homes said in an interview yesterday the impact on rates may be minimal if the main result of investigations is a discussion of what safety steps can be taken to prevent such a tragedy in the future billed as the most expensive fire in markham historyda- mov said the insurance bill could be upwards of 5 mil lion it has drawn business and government together in an effort to minimize inconveni ence to affected homebuyers meanwhile officals are in vestigating the cause of the blaze the prime suspect so far is spontaneous combustion that started in a pile of hay joop taylor assistant chief of investigative services for the fire marshalls office said we have taken some of the hay and we intend on meeting with some people at the centre for forensic sciences larry powell an analyst with forensic sciences said samples of the hay would first be examined to rule out gaso line naptha gas or stove oil as the cause he said he has not come up with a definitive way to determine if spontaneous combustion is the cause of a fire its a very difficult prob lem he said an expert from the universi ty of toronto who visited the site thursday on behalf of the insuring company feels strong ly spontaneous combustion is the culprit professor daniel napier a chemical engineer who spe cializes in industrial hazards said i think it is a very strong runner napier explained spon taneous combustion is a che mical reaction that can occur in hay and straw heat is generated in the centre of a pile and is insulated by oxygen and unable to diffuse eventually the heat rises to the ignition point of the material and flames may break out he ex plained mr taylor said stepscan be taken to prevent this from occuring housekeeping is the main thing he said straw and hay should not be allowed to accumulate over a long period of time on friday consumer minis ter monty kwinter met with canada homes president lome liebel yesterday to dis cuss the companys recon struction plans sfc incumbent acclaimed cousens is pc candidate for new markham riding by bruce etheridge yorkcentre mpp don cousens surprised no one this week in win ning the progress conservative pc nomination for the new mar kham riding by acclamation in nominating him as the tory candidate jay degenova likened mr cousens to sylvester stal lones rocky don cousens still has the eye of the tiger mr de genova told about 250 conserva tives who attended the nomina tion meeting as expected the meeting was a formality for the sixyear veteran of provincial parliament his nomination wasnt contested supporters continually cited mr cousens honesty and integri ty as reasons for backing the ordained presbyterian minister people in markham should be voting for a man like don cousens regardless of the party he repre sents said delegate charles sandiford id vote for him even if he was a communist he added alma walker markhams first mayor seconded mr cousens nomination referring to him as a good kid mrs walker said mr cousens fulfills the motto deeds speak more than words mr cousens told the weeken der an election could be called within several days if not he expects an announcement by late june or early july reflecting back he told dele gates this nomination meeting was a far cry from his first seven years ago he defeated four candidates that night and has held the local mpp seat since with the popularity of the liberal government so high mr cousens said hed see himself in the next election as a threatened candidate mr cousens said the pc hierarchy has re structured the whole organiza tion and focus of the party the pc party has got its act together and is readying its army he noted in his campaign mr cousens don cousens acclaimed iknthfm two beef steaks cofninupl lm0 said he would focus his piatform strategy on strong social prog rams strong economic conser vatism and continue to push for hwy 407 he also predicted voters would see larry grossman for who and what he is a strong intelligent and hardworking leader we goofed a scarborough fire official was incorrectly quoted in wednes days economist andsun a statement attributed to scar borough fire chief bill wretham was in fact wrong he wasnt at the scene of the fire and the state ment he was quoted as making is erroneous we regret the error sparks to fly when dusk falls on monday fireworks will take to the sky for victoria day celebrations at de- nison park on dcnison street cast of kennedy road thecvenf will bepw 6ri bythe armadale north association mr kwinter said mr liebel is committed to rebuilding those homes and delivering them to buyers at the con tracted price he gave me his assurance hell do all he can to build them as quickly as possible mr liebel told me his com pany builds 3200 homes a year and hes not going to risk his reputation for 100 homes although mr damov said it could take several weeks to complete a damage assess ment kwinter said he is con vinced mr liebel will deliver the homes in spite of any insur ance delays as far as mr liebel is con cerned thats a problem be tween him and the insurance company hes going to see those people have their homes mr liebel was not available for comment and on another positive note mr damov said we are doing everything we can to expedite this claim at the local level markham mpp don cousens is calling for a task force to look for ways to improve fire safety on new home sites were very for tunate that canada homes is honoring the purchase agree ment weekender may 16 1987 p3 tenders opened contd from page 1 can be officially awarded the company is the winner in the absence of any reason they ought not to be he said the bid is examined by the architectural firm for the hospit al who then prepares a report and makes a recommendation to the hospital board cosburn- ex plained if the board recommends approval of the bid it must be formally submitted to the minis try of health for consideration and final approval he added the general contractors bid in cludes the cost of mechanical and electrical work according to bar- stow and that represents aout40 per cent of the total price wattshenderson was the low bid in the mechanical tender at 12275000 with ainsworth pro viding the lowest electrical bid at 4860000 both men agreed the hospital would bereadytotreatpatientsin about two and a half years mac cosburn chairman of mar kham stouffville hospital board michael butcher president michael barstow project architect robert savage project expediter and andrew mathers architect display illustration of new hospital following the open ing of tenders thursday water pressure still a mystery by steve houston staff reporter town officials maintained yesterday that water pressure tests taken prior to tuesdays mil- liken fire that destroyed 100 homes showed the system was in proper working order and regional councillor bud bonner said the water system in the subdivision had not yet been assumed as a town responsibility poor pressure in area water- mains stymied firefighters in their efforts to get the blaze under control markham fire chief ken beckett later said damage to homes could have been cut in half had water pressure been suffi cient damage estimates in the blaze have been revised from the ori ginal 22 million figure and are expected to come in between 5 and 10 million according to sources my understanding is that we hadnt taken over responsibility at that point said councillor bonner in an interview we have no idea how they got that way markham mayor carole bell said engineering director dalo keliar will file a report tuesday on why key valves were closed at the site she too said the question re garding the valves remains un answered she added that there is absolutely no liability on the part of the municipality those tests were done prior to the fire and everything was in per fect working order she said yesterday they were turned off i or down since the tests councillor bonner pointed out that it is sometimes necessary for water valves to be shut of when excavations or services within homes are being carried out the thing that has to be done is find out how the whole thing occurred and why said the councilor since the blaze the provincial governments ministry of muni cipal affairs has offered the town assistance in dealing with the in cident a spokesman said no re quests for help have yet been made wc deliver wc can deliver your flyers or as little as 35c each call advertising at 2942200 or distribution at 2948244 1987 flyers delivered economist suntribune 1736500 metroland distributing 44987900 flyers with weekender saturday european nannies christ church anglican antique show national gym contour window fashions century 21 chart land governors healing canadian tire 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