… it almost didn’t happen!

Prep work for all of the photos was well under way on January 14th, and the work continued until early morning on the eve of the exhibit. By that time, there were three huge boxes of photos, 12 frames with the theme winners, 5 humongous canvas prints from Opus, speakers for our DJ Jeremy Lim, and heaps of other odds and ends that needed to get from Morten and Angela’s condo to the Vancouver Photo Workshops by noon. They had no access to the VPW on Saturday before the showcase so keeping a tight schedule was imperative.

As the clock struck 11 am, Morten went out to pick up some last minute items at Staples and that’s when all hell broke loose.

Coming back through the building entrance, he noticed people coming out of the emergency exit soaking wet. Being the strata council president, they all turned to him asking what was going on and he had to admit with a sinking feeling that he had no idea. “There’s water flowing down the emergency stairwell. It’s like a waterfall!” chorused the growing crowd. The fire alarm was blaring and the emergency fire panel flashed fire alarms on 10 different floors. There was no smoke but this had happened a few years ago when a massive leak in the elevator room had short circuited the fire system. The panel now displayed the same symptoms.

But where was the water coming from? Or more importantly, how high up? “It’s coming from the 23rd floor,” someone said, and Morten felt a nasty chill creep down his spine. Their apartment was on the 22nd floor and if the leak was on 23, a flood was likely building on the 22nd. But Angela hadn’t called…because it had just happened and she soon came out the emergency exit as well.

A quick conversation with the building manager cleared it up. A pipe had burst somewhere on the 21st floor and they were turning off the water and power. The fire department arrived with three trucks. As they came in, one of the elevators opened in the lobby and water came flowing out of the doors. They took the stairs and Morten followed. And it was true – the higher up in the stairwell they got, the more water came rushing down. And then it stopped on 22. He continued into the apartment nonetheless to ensure the safety of the exhibit. Luckily, even though the pipe burst in the apartment directly underneath theirs, there was no water. With a great sigh of relief and a quick call to Angela to relieve her panic attack, he grabbed his camera and headed down to document the damage.

The water was turned off and the firefighters were going at the walls and ceiling with axes trying to pinpoint the source. The floor was 8 cm deep in water and it was going down the elevator shaft and into the electrical panels. The Chief shouted “Everyone out or you’ll get electrocuted!” and suddenly everyone was making their way down the stairwell again. The water was still coming down in cascades and as he was shading his camera from the worst of it, Morten suddenly realized there was no way they could carry the entire exhibit down the 22 flights of stairs and through this torrent. He was most certain of this when he proposed the notion to Angela and saw the head smacking warning in her eyes. Something had to be done.

Down in the lobby, the fire chief was negotiating a complete building shut-down: water, power and elevators had to be disabled to avoid electrocution or worse. But before doing so, he decided to take the elderly and families with small children up the elevator to get them into their apartments. This would be the only chance to save Raw Talent. Morten approached the chief and explained that on the 22nd floor there was an entire exhibit that had to be downtown pronto. After a long hesitation, the chief relented and said “Ok, I’ll give you three of my guys and the elevator. You have 5 minutes to get it all down. One run, OK? No more.”

Suddenly everything was moving at hyperspeed. Angela and Morten piled into the elevator with three firefighters and rode up. The water was still coming into the elevator and the floor was slippery. On the 22nd floor, they locked the elevator and formed a chain gang with Angela and Morten in the apartment and the firefighters in a row all the way to the elevator. Boxes, speakers and frames were gingerly handed from person to person and stacked in the elevator as far away from the water as possible and within 3 minutes it was all out and they were on their way down to the parkade. Two minutes later Angela and Morten found themselves by their car in a daze with all the photos and equipment stacked neatly and safely next to them.

And with that, Raw Talent was saved by the Burnaby Fire Department.