McIntyre post-fire update - July 25 / Information session #2 - Thursday, July 26

To all members of the Faculty of Medicine,

Work continues on plan, based on today’s update by McGill’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). Soot on Floors 7 to 13 has been cleaned from the majority of rooms and HVAC systems, and we have received the results of final air quality assessments to support the reopening on Friday, July 27, of Floors 7 to 13, provided the key steps outlined below are successfully completed.

Tomorrow (Thursday, July 26) will be a transition day during which the number one priority will be to bring the temperatures down on Floors 7 to 13. Cleanup will continue in five labs located on these floors, in close collaboration with lab members to protect sensitive equipment and materials. Three of the four main HVAC systems serving these floors are being cleaned as we send this message. New air filters will be installed during the course of Thursday. These systems will be restarted Thursday and closely monitored to ensure all is functioning properly. Work will continue on the fourth system serving the upper floors next week, but this is not expected to interfere with our Friday target date.

During this transition day (Thursday), take note:

• The protocol for access will remain the same to minimize the number of people in the building, so that cool-down can happen as quickly as possible.
• If you have approved one-hour access to Floors 7 to 13, you will be asked to enter from the 6th Floor Pine entrance; this also applies to staff of the ARC.
• If you have one-hour access to Floor 1, please continue to use the 1^st floor entrance.
• If you have concerns regarding temperatures and freezer/refrigeration units in your labs, whether on Floor 1 or Floors 7 to 13, as communicated yesterday, email buildingdirector.med [at] mcgill.ca without delay to request a mobile air cooling unit.  

Rooms served by the fourth HVAC system

There are rooms served by the fourth HVAC system on Floors 7 to 13 for which work will continue through next week. Please note that if you use these rooms, the goal is to open access to them on Friday, July 27; however, while safe, they will not be ventilated, so conditions will be warm and suboptimal. We will confirm the exact location of these rooms during tomorrow’s information session. The protocol to clean this more impacted HVAC unit is currently being finalized, and may involve additional temporary closures for these rooms on a floor-by-floor basis to complete. We will share this protocol with you as soon as we receive it.

1^st Floor laboratories

Preliminary assessments have been completed for Floor 1, which we know sustained major water damage, and where we know significant demolition and reconstruction will take place. The EOC expects to receive the scope of work for Floor 1 early next week. In the interim, we have begun developing a Plan B to relocate the labs located on this floor, if deemed necessary during demolition and reconstruction. We are exploring space in the Bellini Pavilion and other areas, details of which will be confirmed once the scope of work is received.

6^th Floor north-side offices

If you are in the Research, Graduate Studies, Institutional Review Board or Global Health Offices, relocation plans are under way, the details of which you should have received by now in a separate email. As communicated previously, the Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Education Offices, Buildings Office and MedIT were successfully relocated earlier this week. These teams are fully functional in their temporary locations and can be reached via their normal phone extensions and email addresses. 

Information session tomorrow (Thursday, July 26)

A reminder that a second information session will be held by Prof. Yves Beauchamp, McGill’s VP (Administration and Finance) and myself tomorrow (Thursday), July 26, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the Strathcona M-1 (Leblond) Amphitheatre, to provide you with the most updated information, to answer your questions and to do all we can to address your concerns.

I would like to reiterate my deepest thanks to everyone involved in this extraordinary effort for your perseverance and your collaboration.

Sincerely,

David Eidelman, MDCM
Vice-Principal (Health Affairs)
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine