Construction workers gather outside of the Oakridge Mall site after a load on a crane fell off smashing multiple floors of the building in Vancouver, B.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
VANCOUVER – A load being lifted by a crane high above a Vancouver construction site fell, hitting several floors of an unfinished multi-storey building.
Matthew Trudeau with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says he can’t confirm if there were any injuries or what the load contained, but said it struck the floors about 25 storeys up.
He says about 1,700 workers evacuated from the site near Oakridge Mall.
Trudeau says firefighters were called to the city’s busy Cambie Street on Wednesday and a four block stretch of the road was quickly closed off.
He says tactical crews remain on site to ensure the building materials are secure as some of its exterior was damaged in the fall.
Ashley Gregerson of WorkSafeBC, the provincial worker safety agency, says in a statement that the “serious incident” happened around 3 p.m. at a Oakridge Mall work site, but did not provide specifics.
She says WorkSafeBC sent prevention officers to the site, and that it had “mobilized” its occupation health and safety investigations team.
Coltin Lillico, an employee at Crate & Barrel in the nearby mall, said he is not sure of the specifics of what happened, but confirmed the shopping centre remained open and that the furniture store is “functioning normally.”
“All I know is there was a blockage on the road and they had to clear it out,” he said in an interview about an hour after the load fell.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2024.
