ATCO wins $70M contract to house workers cleaning up after catastrophic California wildfire

A second Canadian company is going to Paradise to help rebuild the community nearly destroyed by last November's devastating northern California wildfires.

Calgary-based ATCO Ltd. says it has a nine-month, $70-million contract to provide workforce housing and camp support services for ECC Constructors while it remediates the environment and removes debris in Paradise and the surrounding Butte County.

ATCO's Structures division is to provide 390 temporary modular rental structures that will serve as dormitory, kitchen, laundry and recreation facilities.

Its Frontec division will provide services that include food, housekeeping, waste management and security.

Last month, Calgary-based Black Diamond Group Ltd. said its U.S. business unit had won a $20-million contract to rent portable housing units with 1,584 beds, also under a nine-month contract, at Paradise.

Only about 1,500 of Paradise's 27,000 residents were able to continue living in the few surviving houses after the fire that started in the tinder dry Sierra Nevada foothills destroyed nearly 15,000 homes and killed 85 people in November.

"This project represents one of the largest workforce accommodation facilities ever supplied for disaster relief efforts in the United States and is a testament to the strength and skill of our team in the region," said Frontec president Jim Landon in a news release.