Four dead, one missing after collapse of crane in Kelowna, B.C.

KELOWNA, B.C. — The Mounties say four people were killed and a fifth person is missing after a crane collapsed in Kelowna, B.C.

Insp. Adam MacIntosh says four people at the site, all construction workers, were killed when the crane toppled off the 25-storey building on Monday.

He says a fifth man who was working in an adjacent building is missing.

The upper portion of the crane smashed into a neighbouring building, leaving most of its support tower attached.

The head of the development company building the residential tower said Monday he didn’t know what caused the crane to fall.

Jonathan Friesen of the Mission Group 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 collapse knocked out power for most of Kelowna’s downtown core and forced an evacuation of the area as the city declared an ongoing state of local emergency.

Kellie Orsted and her boss, lawyer Chris Fraser, were working in the building next to the construction site when the crane smashed into their ground-floor offices.

“It was like an explosion,” Orsted said. The outside wall behind her desk caved in, pushing her office chair across part of the room, she said.

Orsted said she ran into Fraser’s office and could only see rubble.

Squinting through the heavy dust, Orsted said she saw her boss with his head down and thought he might be dead.

“Then he moved. I helped pull the rubble off him and we got out of there as quick as we could,” she said.

Fraser said when he heard a loud crash, he immediately dove under his desk for protection.

The wall and part of the roof above him caved in, he said.

“It was hard to see, there was so much dust,” he said.

Labour Minister Harry Bains issued a statement saying he was “deeply saddened to hear about this terrible incident.”

“All workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace — even one injury or death is too many. This is a heartbreaking reminder that we must strive to ensure the safety of all workers to prevent incidents like this from happening.”

The crane was being used to build a residential tower. The upper portion of the crane toppled, leaving most of the crane’s support tower standing.

The City of Kelowna declared a local state of emergency on Monday. In a news release, the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre said the construction site and the surrounding area remain unstable and unsafe.

— With files from Alistair Waters in Kelowna, B.C. 

The Canadian Press