Fire at airport destroys boiler
By Kyra Hoggan
The West Kootenay Regional Airport is soon to have a new boiler system, after a fire destroyed existing infrastructure.
Airport manager Gerry Rempel said the fire was a small one, and no one was injured, but it did leave them with a system that can’t be repaired or replaced.
“(On Oct. 22), the guys were making their rounds and saw water on the floor where the boiler had leaked,” he said. “It turns out, the water from the leak caused a backfire situation with the gas burner underneath, which burned the controls and wiring on one of our four boilers.”
When he went to replace the boiler, he said, he discovered that kind of boiler is no longer being manufactured (the system was installed in ’88, when the terminal building was rebuilt).
“We can replace the four boilers with three new ones, which are more effective and more efficient,” he said, adding the new ones will work better while using less gas. “It’ll cost about $31,000. We had some money in the capital budget for revamping that system anyway, and the other roughly $8,000 will come from reserves.”
He said the city could have had to upgrade the system regardless – this fire just forces them to do it sooner, rather than later.
Council voted in favour of the new boilers at its regular meeting Monday night.
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