Wednesday Sept. 11, 2013 www.saobserver.net $1.25 GST InCLuDeD
Fatality Fire destroys fruit stand prompts Pedro Gonzales: Blaze spreads shut-down rapidly, cause remains unknown. By Tracy Hughes OBSeRVeR STAFF
A stop work order has been issued for seven power presses at Dinoflex Group Ltd. following the death of an employee on Aug. 28. WorkSafe BC inspector Jim Saunders made the order on Aug. 30 following an inspection of the facility. Shane Mackenzie Gorner, 19, was killed after getting caught in machinery at the manufacturing plant located in the Salmon Arm Industrial Park. Medical attention, including an air ambulance, was dispatched but Gorner succumbed to his injuries before he could be taken to hospital. In his report, Saunders says the seven power presses used for making rubber blocks are not in a safe condition to operate and do not comply with Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. “The point of operation of the seven power presses, used to make rubber blocks at this workplace, are not safeguarded to prevent injury to the operator or any other worker… The employer must ensure that prior to use, all of the seven power presses are Shane Gorner safeguarded to a standard DieD while acceptable by the board,” on the job states the report. Dinoflex Group CeO Mark Bunz acknowledges that additional safeguarding is now required and says the company is committed to the safety of all its employees. The company has enlisted the services of an industrial engineering and design company specializing in safeguarding to assist in complying with the WorkSafe BC orders. “It’s important to point out that WorkSafe BC conducted a prior audit as normal course of business and safeguarding of the presses was not highlighted as a safety concern at that time,” he writes in a statement to the Observer. “It should also be noted we have not had a recordable injury with the presses in the 25 years of their existence.” The order remains in effect until cancelled by the Workers’ Compensation Board. The coroner is also investigating the incident.
By Barb Brouwer OBSeRVeR STAFF
A devastating fire at Pedro Gonzalez Fruit and Garden Ltd. has left fire investigators with more questions than answers. The Salmon Arm RCMP are working with the Salmon Arm Fire Department to establish the cause of the fire. “The police investigation is ongoing and updates will follow as the investigation develops,” says a press release from the Salmon Arm detachment. Assistant fire chief Rod Macfarlane says the speed with which the fire spread in the five minutes between dispatch and arrival on scene was unusual. “Things didn’t go as expected,” he said yesterday, noting that what initially came in as a “commercial alarm” at 12:20 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9, was amended to a “commercial structure fire” within one minute and was a deep-seated fire by the time firefighters arrived. “Given the time frame, it’s very unusual. It’s rare something will move that quickly and do that much damage.” The first indication of a fire was when heat detectors went off, alerting the monitoring company, which called dispatchers. What triggered the change to commercial structure fire within a minute was a call from a passerby on the Trans-Canada Highway, something that was followed by multiple 911 calls. Macfarlane says a duty chief was at Pedro’s within four minutes, saw a fire in the back and immediately called for additional resources. Hall 3 was on scene with full equipment in less than six minutes and firefighters from the department’s three other halls arrived shortly after. “We found a fire in the feed build-
This week Walmart is planning for a November opening of the 96,000 sq. ft. store. See A16. Shuswap teams wrap their season with a solid showing in Revelstoke. See A17.
SHane MacKicHan/BLACK PReSS
Roof collapses: Firefighters watch as the blaze causes the roof to fall at Pedro Gonzales’ Fruit & Garden Ltd. ing and focused our attention on that because that’s where we saw flames on our arrival,” Macfarlane says, noting the fire spread quickly from the seed building at the back, through the main sales building, causing the roof to collapse. “It was pretty spectacular at that point,” he says. “Within a short time, flames were rolling out of there.” Firefighters were on scene until 6 a.m. extinguishing the fire and preventing it from getting into the west side of
the main building. The collapsed roof made accessing hot spots difficult. Grateful no one was injured in the blaze, Macfarlane says the building and contents suffered extensive loss. “It (flames) all went through the roof structure so there was very little damage,” he says of items inside the store. “The sad thing is, as much as we could save, the resulting smoke and water See Business on page A2
Index Opinion ....................... A6 View Point .................. A7 Life & Times ............. A14 Sports................A17-A20 Arts & Events ... A21-A24 Time Out................... A25 Vol. 106, No. 37, 44 pages