February 22, 2010

PATRICK MCCONNELL

The victim was working on an apartment building under renovation.

Developing story

Construction worker falls six storeys to death in Toronto

43-year-old man was an employee of Holl Restoration

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Contrary to some news reports, the death of a 43-year-old worker at a Scarborough-area restoration construction site Thursday didn’t involve a swing stage, confirms Ontario’s Ministry of Labour.

“The worker fell from a six-storey balcony of an apartment building,” reported Bruce Skeaff, labour ministry spokesperson. “We do not know how or any other details or the state of that particular balcony at this time.”

The labour ministry first heard of the accident just after noon on Feb. 18 when one of its inspectors happened to be nearby and noticed a Toronto police cruiser pulling into the restoration project site.

The Holl Restoration Inc. employee was on a balcony at Gailong Towers, 66 Parkwoods Village Drive near Victoria Park and Ellesmere Avenues at the time of the accident.

Three R Property Management is the owner and manager of the building.

The project notice for the site, filed with the labour ministry in September 2009, outlines balcony repairs and railing replacement as the main restoration activity.

There have been no field visits by ministry inspectors to the site prior to the accident.

The 2009 Christmas Eve swing-stage tragedy where four workers were killed at a Kipling Avenue apartment renovation site involved a modified swing stage that came apart.

Aleksey Blumberg, Fayzullo Fazilov, Aleksanders Bondarevs and Vladimir Korostin all plunged 13 storeys to their deaths on Dec. 24.

A fifth worker, Dilshod Marupov, of Uzbekistan, survived the fall but sustained serious injuries.

The ministry launched an enforcement blitz of suspended platforms at construction sites in early January after the swing stage tragedy.

The blitz is focused on compliance with fall protection requirements, including appropriate fall-related equipment and worker training.

There were no blitz visits to the Parkwoods Village Drive site and Skeaff noted that the blitz focused on “raised platforms” and the worker killed there was standing on a balcony at the time of the accident.

There have been reports, not confirmed by the labour ministry, that the worker was wearing a safety harness at the time but it is unclear whether it was attached when he fell.

Other published reports have stated the worker was hit by a piece of metal causing him to fall.

Co-workers of the deceased worker and police officers attempted to revive the man before paramedics arrived but to no avail, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The ministry is continuing its investigation and has issued an order to not disturb the scene to Holl Restoration.

The restoration industry has become lucrative over the last five years thanks to the many apartments buildings, garage and similar structures built 25 to 35 years ago.

In light of the Christmas Eve swing stage tragedy and the amount of restoration work both ongoing and expected, a restoration industry safety task force was struck and is now under the umbrella of the Building and Concrete Restoration Association of Ontario.

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