Crane collapse kills four, 1 person missing in wreckage
KELOWNA — The collapse of a crane at a Kamloops construction site killed four workers and a search was on Tuesday for a man under the rubble of an adjacent building, RCMP say.
Insp. Adam MacIntosh told a news conference the men killed were working at the site on Monday when the upper portion of the crane toppled from above the 25-storey residential tower and crashed into a neighbouring building.
The missing man, who is presumed dead, was working in that building and police were hoping to recover his body later Tuesday, MacIntosh said.
Another man who was taken to hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries has since been released, he said.
The Mounties are collaborating with the B.C. Coroners Service, WorkSafe B.C., the local fire department and engineers to determine what’s required to safely secure portions of the crane to recover the man’s body, he said.
Until then, an emergency order prevents anyone from accessing the area.
The building next door housed a consulting business, MacIntosh said. He would not speculate about the cause of the collapse, but said workers were getting ready to take the crane down or were in the process of dismantling it.
“Why exactly that crane collapsed, that’s a part of the investigation,” he said. “Obviously, something catastrophic occurred.”
The RCMP are investigating to ensure the collapse was not criminal in nature, he said.
One person who died had been taken to hospital, while the others died at the scene, MacIntosh said. The crane operator is believed to be among the dead. “Some of them were physically on or around the crane when it had collapsed.”
The collapse knocked out power for most of Kelowna’s downtown and prompted an evacuation order for surrounding homes and businesses. Some people remained displaced from a seniors residence on Tuesday, MacIntosh said.
The head of Mission Group, the development company building the residential tower, said Monday that he didn’t know what caused the crane to fall.
Jonathan Friesen said the company’s staff and subtrades were in a state of shock and grief counselling had been offered to anyone who needed it.
The website for Stemmer Construction, based in Salmon Arm, lists the tower in Kelowna as one of its current projects.
A call to Stemmer’s office about whether any of its employees were impacted by the collapse went unanswered on Tuesday afternoon.
Premier John Horgan said the collapse was “an event that, quite honestly, you don’t expect to happen on a sunny July day here in British Columbia.”
“Yet, it can happen,” he told a news conference. “We need to redouble our efforts on workplace safety and any of the findings that WorkSafe brings forward or the coroner brings forward, we’ll certainly be implementing right across the province.”
A Twitter post Tuesday by Prime Minister Justice Trudeau read: “My heart is in Kelowna today, with the families, friends, and colleagues of the workers who lost their lives.”
A candlelight vigil has been planned for Friday at 9 p.m. near the site of the crane collapse. The aim is to gather as close to the site as possible, organizers say, but the exact location had yet to be determined.