Quantum Group of Companies had such a burning desire to move to its new Riel Park location, it celebrated the event Friday with a fire.
In front of witnesses that included fire code officials and firefighters, Quantum vice-president of operations Shawn Chizen lit a bonfire in two small structures meant to represent houses.
Both eventually burned to the ground but the one coated with Quantum’s trademarked SafeCoat Latex paint took longer to disintegrate.
The exercise was meant to show the fire-retardant material could save lives because people would have more time to escape from a burning building. When the fire retardant is sprayed at the construction stage on the outside of gypsum walls, it could make entire neighbourhoods less combustible.
“In the Edmonton area, the material will be put on the outside of walls, making them fire resistant for 15 minutes,” said Vicki Beier, vice-president of marketing and sales, adding that depending upon the size of the building, the fire-retardant would add between $1,500 and $3,000 to the cost of a house.
The fire demonstration Friday showed flames from the untreated building leapt up more quickly and then began to lick at the roof of the treated building.
“In a real building it would not go to the attic if the roof was coated. It would put the fire out,” Beier said.
Quantum Group manufactures a number of fire-retardant products available for different applications including on bus floors and in the oil industry.
This week Tim Hortons restaurants across the country celebrated the 35th anniversary of the most famous doughnut hole in the world — the Timbit.
Timbits are said to be so popular that if someone had started in 1976 and laid the goodies end to end instead of popping them in their mouth, they would stretch to the moon and back almost five times.
Tim Hortons didn’t move to St. Albert until 1983 when Art Jenkins opened the first store on the St. Albert Trail, at the location now occupied by the Beer Hunter.
“To put it in perspective, that Tim Hortons store was No. 179 in Canada. Now there are probably 4,500 stores in Canada,” said Chad Jenkins, who remembers moving with the family and working in his father’s store.
“We lived in Hamilton and my dad worked for the Steel Company of Canada, but he wanted to be his own boss. In Hamilton, Tim Hortons was a big name, but he couldn’t get a franchise in Ontario. So one day he said, ‘We’re moving to Alberta’ and that was it,” Jenkins said, adding at the time there were only three Tim Hortons in the area.
The Jenkins family presently owns five stores in St. Albert, with a sixth scheduled to open this summer near Servus Credit Union Place.
