Worker buried in job-site trench collapse
A 55-year-old Edmonton construction worker was buried under more than a metre of clay and dirt Tuesday afternoon when a backyard trench collapsed at an infill project.
District fire chief Doug MacDonald told reporters shortly after 11 p.m. that the man had been found, but couldn’t confirm his condition.
Earlier in the day, MacDonald had said the situation was grim.
“I’m not going to say he’s dead or anything yet, but he’s probably 10 feet down with five or six feet of clay and dirt on top of him,” MacDonald said.
The man was employed by the Bissell Centre’s temporary labour agency. He was working inside a two- to three-metre-deep trench when it collapsed.
The incident happened just before five o’clock in the Westmount neighbourhood near 123rd Street and 108th Avenue, where crews were building two houses. A backhoe was in the yard, along with several piles of dirt.
Workers were attempting to access a water main for the new homes when the trench collapsed, according to an Occupational Health and Safety spokesman.
By 8 p.m., fire crews had shored up the collapsed trench walls and started digging.
Later, a truck came to vacuum out the excess dirt so the digging could continue.
Neighbour Jelle Spijker said the house that once stood on the property was torn down last November.
“I’m not too surprised something bigger happened, but I’m really sorry to hear someone got injured. Right from the beginning, there were issues,” he said.
First, a water main broke; then, several weeks ago, a wall collapsed on his fence, he said.
His wife, Saskia Aarts, was home Tuesday when the incident happened. “I just heard an incredible amount of shouting back and forth,” she said.
“I realized later, once all the fire engines started to come, that something was dangerously amiss.”
City records show Haya Homes and Limak Investments applied for a development permit on the property Nov. 20.
Occupational Health and Safety is investigating. With files from Elise Stolte khobson@edmontonjournal.com