Reginians downtown wary after glass falls from skyscraper

People in downtown Regina are wondering how well the rest of the panes were installed after a sheet window fell out of the Hill Tower 3 building on Saturday.

“Maybe they have some warranty issues? Maybe a person doesn’t want to sit here,” said Sandra, who was downtown.

“Maybe they have some warranty issues? Maybe a person doesn’t want to sit here,” said Sandra, who was downtown.

Trevor was also downtown at lunch on Wednesday. “So then I would wonder if they’re going to check all the panels, because if one fell then there’s a good chance more could fall.”

The sheet of glass fell Saturday afternoon. No one was hurt, police say there weren’t many people around at the time.

Some people downtown, like Julie, said hearing about these things makes her not want to walk near the buildings.

“‘Cuz you’re not looking at what’s going up top, you’re kind of looking at what’s going on around you, and it might be too late.”

Ernie Polson, Regina’s fire chief, said they, along with the property owners, are investigating why the window fell

“Because of the mounting systems, it’s not an uncommon thing to happen, it’s certainly not a daily occurrence by any stretch,” Polson said.

“They are known to separate from the building … generally it’s usually a failure of a clip or something like that, that holds them in place.”

Though Polsom assures people downtown that the glass is designed to break into pieces before it hits the ground.

“When they’re released from pressure they actually break, so they come down in small pieces, so the risk of injury is quite a bit reduced, is significantly reduced.”

Steve Enns is the Vice President of Harvard Property Management which owns all three Hill Towers. He says the company is working with experts and building consultants to decide what to do going forward to ensure safety. He says it will be difficult to determine exactly why the glass pane fell.

“We suspect it  is a nickel sulfite inclusion, which is an anomaly that’s common in tempered glass, but it’s unlikely that we’re going to be able to determine the exact cause in this instance,” he said.

Enns says this particular anomaly is not something that can be tested for because it is a reaction between compounds within the glass.

“It’s not something we would be able to see even with close inspection, so at this points we are waiting for our experts to tell us if there is any further testing that can be done to investigate anything further on the building,” Enns said.

This is at least the third time glass has fallen from a Hill Tower since 2013.