Five workers injured after balcony collapses at construction site
Five people were injured, at least one of them seriously, when scaffolding and a balcony collapsed on a Gatineau construction site Friday morning.
Police said they were called to the site at 12 Horizon St., in the city’s Plateau neighbourhood, at about 9 a.m. A balcony on an upper floor of the condo site started to sag, then collapsed. Four workers tumbled about 10 metres to the ground, police said.
One of the workers apparently had time to jump inside the thirdfloor unit, but suffered injuries to his back and leg.
Gatineau fire personnel and a special extrication team from Ottawa Fire Services were employed to free him because there were no stairs up to the unit where the worker was.
None of the injuries are considered life-threatening, police said.
The workers were employees of a masonry company employed by Brigil Construction, developers of the site.
Gatineau police and the province’s workers health and safety commission are investigating the incident.
It was the second serious construction site incident in 10 days.
Steelworker Daniel Sabourin died Aug. 9 after suffering “several injuries while working ” the day before on a construction site on Chemin Industriel in Gatineau.
The cause of death hasn’t been released.