So the Starbucks near my office blew up last night. And when I say near, I mean near - as the crow flies it's probably only about 50 metres or so from my desk, which is in a big glass building...
Photo from the CBC story linked above. My office overlooks the back of the Starbucks building.
It happened at around 2:30 am and it's a commercial district, so thankfully it looks like no-one was hurt.
The Starbucks junkies amongst my colleagues don't have to worry though - another one just opened up 2 blocks away.
There's an outside chance that my office will be closed, but I think they would have mentioned it on the news if my building was damaged (it's become a bit of a local landmark, and anyone who knows Vancouver now knows exactly where I work. Please don't stalk me). I'm just glad I'm not on the bus today.
I'll update this post with photos as they become available...
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Edited at 10.30 am to add photo. My building is open, but the bike room is not (it's accessed via the back alley between my building and Starbucks), and there are bikes all over the place at the front of our building. No-one can park either.
Like when the water boil order in late 2006 ment that no where in Vancouver could serve coffee. The whole city went into detox.
ReplyDeleteNever fear, there will be another starbucks within 1 block knowing Vancouver...
I walked past it this morning and it looked pretty bad. Lots of glass and twisted metal on the street - even some on the side street near your work entry! Very lucky that nobody was hurt. Oddly, it was about 20 years ago when another local business blew up a block a way - Dynamite Pizza (yes, ironic name) was taken out when the pizza oven was cleaned with gasoline.
ReplyDeleteMermaid
PS - OK, the explosion ISN'T funny, but did anyone else giggle just a little bit when reading the news story and getting to the bit 'it could have been caused by a gas leak in the taco restaurant'. Please tell me someone else found humor in that statement!
Yeah, we don't know where that glass came from as our glass canopy looks to be intact. There are street sweepers going up and down the street now clearing it up, to add to the noise caused by the sirens and helicopters...
ReplyDeleteHubby told me about Dynamite Pizza this morning, he heard that it was an insurance scam. Wasn't that below Joe's, i.e. in the exact same place as the new Starbucks?
p.s. Propter Doc, I'd long suspected that you are in Vancouver too and now I guess it's official!
ReplyDeleteThere is a new Starbucks 2 blocks away, opposite where the Cambie / Broadway skytrain station is being built. There's also a coffee shop in my building that is absolutely jam packed at the moment.
Yes, Dynamite Pizza was below Joe;s. There is actually a pizza place there again. Next door used to be a lighting store - imagine the mess a 'boom' would make in a store full of glass!
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking how incredibly lucky we are to live in a country where events like this are not commonplace. So many countries I have visited would think this was not worth even a newspaper article. Yay, Canada!
Mermaid
Yes, we're definitely lucky that this is such a rare occurrence. You can tell by the size of the crowds down there gawping! I met several people I know when I went down there...
ReplyDeletep.s. a gas leak in a taco restaurant would be pretty funny! Looks like arson though...
Yikes! Hope no one was hurt.
ReplyDeleteYikes indeed! It's now been confirmed that no-one was hurt. Very very lucky.
ReplyDeleteHoly shit! Good thing no one was nearby when it happened. Of course there is another Starbucks nearby. There are three of them within a five-minute walk from my lab!
ReplyDeleteThere used to be 3 within 5 mnutes of here, but of course now there are only 2. Oh well, the other 6 coffee places within a 1 block radius can probably help to take up the slack.
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