By Victoria Surla
“For a second, I thought it could be a false alarm,” said Varun Shah, a George Brown student and resident of Neill-Wycik Co-operative College, who had just finished dinner and was getting started on some homework when his fire alarm went off.
“But after hearing the fire trucks and police sirens echoing, I knew this could be serious. The lights abruptly went off in the entire building and that is when my roommate told me to evacuate.”
On the evening of November 2, firefighters were rushed to Neill-Wycik Co-operative College to deal with an electrical fire at the 22-story building, located at Gerrard St. E and Church St. in downtown Toronto. Since then, four George Brown College (GBC) students who had previously been living in the residence have been forced to temporarily relocate to new living spaces, in the midst of COVID-19.
“The entire incident was stressful on a personal and academic level,” says Shah.
“I was staying indoors and social distancing and taking all necessary measures due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in Toronto. It was a major concern because due to the fire a lot of people had evacuated the building at the same time. My two roommates and I evacuated with masks on and sanitizers with us, however, and were maintaining distance from everyone.”
A total of four GBC students have been relocated to other living spaces, according to Andria Lewis-Alexander, GBC’s coordinator for Student Life Engagement Initiatives, as well as the coordinator for the Black Student Success Network (BSSN).
“Initially, we just thought it was going to be two students that were going to relocate, and then we ended up relocating four,” said Lewis-Alexander.
The students were relocated to Chestnut Residence, a student hall located at the University of Toronto for three days, and are now temporarily placed at GBC’s The George residence until December 19. Their stay at The George is being provided free of charge, says Erica Fearnall, general manager of Campus Living Centres at GBC.
“We tried to pick all west-facing rooms so that students could have a great view of the CN Tower, to promote safety and comfort to them and to support them.”
The students will be provided with private room accommodations until the end of the Fall 2020 semester, according to Lewis-Alexander.
“We offered them the option to stay until December 19, because from what we understand, the internet is not back up at Neill-Wycik. They have had issues with heating and water, so we’ve offered them to stay until the end of the semester.”
After December 19, the students will have to re-apply to live at The George.
While no students were injured in the fire, it has been a challenging few weeks for the students who were displaced.
The Student Nutrition Access Program (SNAP), a Student Association of George Brown College (SAGBC) program which aims to support the health and wellness needs of George Brown College students, provided care packages and food hampers to the students following the incident, which included a variety of personal care and grocery items.
“Even though they were allowed to go back into the building, they didn’t have electricity, heating, and all that stuff,” said Ronnie Cruz, the SAGBC’s community care coordinator who manages the SNAP program. “So I provided them with food, care packages, along with gift-cards.”
Shah says both GBC & SNAP have been very quick in their response to help the students affected. Although the past two weeks have been stressful, he says he’s trying to stay calm.
“I think it’s always important to stay calm and act quick and be fully present during situations like these especially in the times of COVID-19, situations like this can really take a toll on your mental health and academics.”
