Fifth body discovered at crane site
A fifth body has now been recovered from Monday’s fatal crane collapse.
The body was buried under rubble from the collapse. Police say the Kelowna-area man is believed to have been working in an adjacent building when the crane came down.
Police confirmed on Wednesday five people died in the crane collapse at the Bernard Block highrise construction site. Four bodies had been found and they were searching for the fifth.
RCMP are not releasing the names of the victims, but Go Fund Me pages were started on Tuesday in the names of three of the construction site workers who died.
Brothers Eric and Patrick Stemmer, whose family owned the crane, were remembered as husbands, fathers, sons and friends. Both men were married and each had two children. One of the brothers’ wives is pregnant.
The other Go Fund Me page was opened for Jared Zook, 32, who was a rigger on the crane. The page in his name said funds were being sought to help his parents with the cost of his funeral, lost wages and travel costs as they live in Edmonton. Zook leaves behind a wife.
“At this time, we do not believe there are any other persons who were injured or killed as a result of the collapse of this crane,” said RCMP Insp. Adam MacIntosh, in a news release Wednesday morning. “Our deepest condolences go to the family, friends, and coworkers of those who were lost here.”
WorkSafeBC, the BC Coroners Service and the Kelowna RCMP are continuing investigations into this incident .
An evacuation order and state of emergency remains in effect around the area.
According to the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre, engineers and other professionals will be at the site today to determine the safest course of action for disassembling the crane.
The disassembly is likely to take place in stages and if the first stage is successful, a partial rescinding of the evacuation order could happen today.
Evacuation orders remain in effect for 547612 Bernard Ave., 1450-1488 Bertram St., and 1441-1471 St. Paul St.