Man badly hurt after falling through Somerset House window

A man was seriously injuredwhen he crashedthrough a window andfell into a basement at Bank and Somerset streets in downtown Ottawa early Sunday morning.

The 43-year-old man suffered a fractured skull, a brain injury, and multiple fractures to his spine and pelvis during the seven-metre fall, Ottawa Fire Service district chief John Gagnon said.

The building on the southeast corner, which formerly housed the Duke of Somerset pub and also known as Somerset House,is the same onethat partially collapsed a year ago, prompting an eight-week closure of the intersection.

Gagnon said it appears the man was leaning against the window when the glass broke beneath his weight and he fell.

A fire department rescue team was sent to bring him to safety.

On Monday, jagged glass still surrounded a hole in the window, while shards remained scattered beneath it.

Arlene Grgoire, director of building code services for the City of Ottawa, said municipal officials were to visit the site Monday to look at its condition and would likely issue an order to have the window secured with plywood.

Shewouldnotspeculate on any possible relationship between the building's partial collapse on Oct. 19, 2007, and the mishap over the weekend.

"I think that any window at grade can be fallen through if it's an older building," she said. "This appears to be a coincidence an unfortunate accident."

City slowing down restoration: owner

Since the collapse a year ago, the building has been under construction.Its owner, Tony Shahrasebi, said he wants to restore the heritage brick building but to his frustration the city has been slow atissuingpermits for the work.

"Do we need somebody to get killed to get some reaction from the city, to speed up the process?" he asked Monday.

Grgoire said the permits are taking a long time because the applications are consistently missing important details.

"If the information's not there, then we can't issue a building permit until everything has been lined up," she said.