Two workers injured at Zero House work site
Two wokers were injured after a crane load swung at a work site at the Mount Community Centre at Monaghan Road and McDonnel Street.
It happened around 4:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Zero House project as a boom truck was placing the last of several large wooden panels on a platform trailer.
City police, firefighters and paramedics responded to help the two workers.
A woman was pinned and a man was struck. They were both taken by paramedics to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for treatment of injuries.
The Ministry of Labour has been called in to investigate.
The Endeavour Centre is building the Zero House, which will be a green home that has zero carbon footprint, zero toxins and zero net energy use.
The house had been assembled over the summer at the Mount Community Centre site and was being disassembled on Wednesday so that it can be taken to be displayed at the EDIT dx Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology, which runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 8 in Toronto.
The Endeavour Centre is a sustainable building school based in Peterborough. Jen Feigin, an instructor, was supervising the dismantling of the house on Thursday.
She didn’t witness the incident, but her understanding was that the woman was pinned and the man was hit.
They are students of the Endeavour Centre, she said, and they were conscious and speaking at the scene following the mishap.
She also said the construction crew was almost done the project: the last panel containing house components was being set down onto the trailer by the crane when the load swung.
The construction crew was made up of 10 students, two instructors and one crane operator, Feigin said.
They’ve been building the house since mid-June, and Feigin said they were shocked over the incident. She said they’ve been teaching since 2005 and have never had an injury.
“We run a really safe worksite – we’ve never had an accident,” she said.
At the scene, Feigin said she didn’t know whether the disassembled house can still be taken to Toronto as planned; worksites typically cannot be disturbed during Ministry of Labour investigations.
Ministry of Labour representatives arrived on the scene later to investigate.
City police and fire officials would not comment on the incident.
There was no word Wednesday night on the extent of the injuries to the workers.