Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2003
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Mark Bonokoski

HAZARDS OF A JOB

Claims Adjusters Face Grow-Op Dangers

When it comes to marijuana grow operations, it's the gang-versus-gang 
gunplay which captures the headlines, with sidebar stories telling the 
money side. In the shadow of Ottawa considering legislation to 
decriminalize pot possession, Criminal Service Intelligence Ontario laid 
out figures last week indicating the dramatic rise in "grow-ops" has cost 
this province more than $200 million over the last two years -- with a 250% 
increase in police busts illustrating the flip-side fact that the reward to 
organized criminals obviously still outweighs the risk.

But there are other risks out there surrounding those clandestine grow-ops 
and speed labs which do not involve the obvious players -- not the bad guys 
and not the cops who are chasing them down.

Instead, they involve the ones no one thought about -- until the headlines 
became overwhelming. And they're the insurance adjusters.

Because of the millions of dollars involved, a few Canadian insurers have 
changed wordings in their home insurance policies to exclude coverage for 
damage caused by criminal acts, namely grow-ops and speed labs.

But even fewer insurers have thought about the risks to their front-line 
adjusters who have to investigate these claims, which is why June Crinnion 
decided it was time that insurers got a little education about the 
down-and-dirty side of organized crime's latest prime-time industry -- 
especially when police estimate there are 15,000 to 20,000 illegal grow-ops 
at any given time in southwestern Ontario alone.

FEARFUL

June Crinnion is president of Johnson-Fisher Construction Ltd., an 
established Toronto fire and water restoration firm.

And she got so fearful of what she was seeing -- and hearing -- that she 
hired O.B.N. Security, a private investigations company comprised of senior 
officers now retired from Toronto Police Services, to run a series of 
weekly seminars on the dangers surrounding these labs.

Invited to attend these Wednesday sessions -- the second of which is being 
held today -- are her company's clients, including insurance adjusters.

"We now face a new wrinkle," said Crinnion. "Increasingly my company has 
been called to look at premises that have been used by organized crime to 
manufacture drugs. Sometimes the growing apparatus has caused a fire. 
Sometimes the police have raided the premises.

"Either way, when we have gone into these situations we have not been told 
in advance that the claims being investigated are the result of a 
cultivation or a chemical manufacturing operation," she said.

"And every time I have sent my people in, I was unwittingly putting them in 
danger."

Conducting these seminars is O.B.N.'s Bruce Durling, a former Toronto cop 
who spent 20 years on the major drug squad.

"I am here to make them very afraid," said Durling. "When it comes to 
grow-ops and speed labs, there are dangers at every turn. Even beat cops 
back away if they happen to stumble upon one of these operations.

"They know it is best to call in the experts -- the narcotics squad and the 
haz-mat (hazardous materials) team.

"But an insurance adjuster? What's he or she know?"

Throughout the two-hour presentations, Durling tells the insurance 
adjusters what to look for whenever they are investigating a claim -- the 
telltale signs of something being amiss which could save them from being 
exposed to toxic chemicals, or from walking into the booby-trap situations 
which are becoming almost commonplace in these clandestine labs.

"Be ever vigilant," he said. "But, remember this, if anything raises your 
suspicions, even if you think it may be insignificant, get yourself out of 
the building and call in the authorities."

'KABOOM'

A few years back, a hash-oil lab in Oshawa exploded and levelled a house 
and two adjoining homes, giving rise to a red flag which is waving even 
stronger today with the sudden growth in indoor marijuana operations, 
complete with traps being laid to fend off rival gangs.

"Did you know a Drano can screws nicely into a light bulb socket?" said 
Durling. "Fill it with ether -- which is a big component of speed labs -- 
and the moment the light switch is flicked on, it's kaboom."

What June Crinnion wants to see happen as a result of these seminars is the 
development of a protocol within her industry.

"I was shocked when I first heard of all the dangers," she said. "And I 
felt I had to make the industry aware of these dangerous situations -- not 
only as an occupational health and safety issue, but also from a liability 
standpoint.

"With an excess of 10,000 houses currently exploited as cooking and growing 
labs in Toronto alone, a protocol for how these places are handled must be 
established.

"There are just too many time bombs out there."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens