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."