Saint John’s boardwalk patios partially reopened this weekend but instead of the new furniture the city bought for the space, patio-goers were greeted with wooden picnic tables.
The city spent $180,000 for noncombustible patio furniture as part of its plans to open the highly anticipated boardwalk to the public, only to have it shut down by the province’s fire marshal.
Ian Fogan, Saint John’s commissioner of utilities and infrastructure, said one of the reasons for the shutdown was the new furniture needed to be assessed for combustibility by RJ Bartlett Engineering, a Fredericton-based firm that specializes in what it calls on its website “fire protection engineering solutions.”
Fogan said in the firm’s report, they said the patio furniture had to be non-combustible or be made of heavy wood.
“They saw the furniture but they didn’t have any information on the furniture at that time … they said that ‘we don’t know whether this furniture is going to meet our requirements or not,'” he said.
With the non-combustibility of the furniture being in question, Fogan, said the engineering firm said if the city wanted to open the patios to the public on an “interim basis,” they had to use picnic tables made of heavy wood.
Fogan said the city was told it would take the firm “some time in order to delve into this furniture, its flammability, all those kind of things.”
Coun. David Hickey expressed frustration that the furniture bought to help the four restaurants along the boardwalk isn’t “good enough.”
“The furniture that the city had bought is the highest rating of non-combustible, fire-resistant furniture you can purchase,” he said.
“The city spent nearly $180,000 on the furniture. The aim with that is to then lease [it] back to the restaurants over a period of 10 years to make the transition into opening a little easier for restaurants, so they didn’t have to have the burden of purchasing new patio furniture,” Hickey said.
Saint John Ale House owner Jesse Vergen was involved in the process of purchasing the tables and chairs and while he was happy to have the patio open for Father’s Day on the weekend, he was also frustrated.
“We have a very big argument with RJ Bartlett and their feelings on our furniture,” he said.
“We went out and we specifically sourced out furniture that was of the highest grade, that came with the technical data sheets that is used all over the world in massive hotels and restaurant chains.”
Vergen said the furniture was specifically chosen because it’s as safe as possible.
“And now we’ve had some of that switched out, and we have literally wooden picnic tables on the inside of our patios,” he said.
Firm declined to comment
Coun. Hickey said that RJ Bartlett did initially approve the patio furniture.
“I think [the sign-off] would have happened at two points,” he said.
“It happened at the point where we asked what furniture to buy, and they said buy heavy wood furniture or noncombustible furniture. So we bought noncombustible furniture.
“I would suggest that approval also happened at the point where that engineer signed off on the site opening on June 1, where the furniture was installed and in use.”
As to what changed between June 1 and June 6, Hickey said it’s a question for the firm.
CBC News contacted RJ Bartlett for an interview but the firm declined to comment.
Fogan said that the firm’s decision was based on not understanding the material of the tables.
“I think their thoughts were, they saw the furniture that was in there and it has that hard plastic feel and they don’t know, you know, exactly what that material is.
“I guess that’s what they want to do … they want to find out what this furniture is and to make sure it has the same kind of quality, same kind of burn qualities as solid wood, not like particle board or anything like that, but solid wood.”
Fogan said the patios can operate in full swing with the wooden tables until the company completes the assessment, but the city was not given a timeline as to when that might be.
“The fire alarm is working … so that’s been signed off,” Fogan said.
“The last piece is really some further testing by the fire-code engineer. It’s called integrated services testing.”
It tests whether all the fire prevention systems, such as alarms and sprinklers, activate together in the event of emergency.
“That’s the last piece that needs to go and then we should be good to go for full occupancy,” Fogan said.