Two Manitoba men are dead following an accident Nov. 21 at CanAmera Foods’ canola crushing plant in Altona, Man.
Police said three plant employees were preparing to load a tanker with canola oil when a hose spout fell into the tanker. One worker went in to retrieve the hose and never came out.
“A second employee went in to help the first employee. He did not come out so a third employee subsequently went in to help and did not come out of the tanker,” said Altona police chief Glen Robinson.
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Peter Friesen, 41, survived the accident and was released from the Altona hospital Nov. 23.
Fifty-five-year-old David Schro-eder of Horndean, Man. and Jim Friesen, 23, of Altona were pronounced dead on arrival by the local emergency response team, police said.
Exposure to the nitrogen gas inside the tank, used to preserve the canola oil, prevented the workers from climbing out, Robinson said.
Herb Schafer, CanAmera’s senior vice-president of operations, said workers will not be allowed to enter hazardous areas until the investigation has been completed.
No oxygen
He said he doesn’t know what happened when three workers went into a car loaded with 100 percent nitrogen gas and no oxygen.
“There are detailed procedures for what to do before entering a car,” he said from CanAmera’s head office in Oakville, Ont., “and that is being reviewed.”
Investigations are under way by the province’s chief medical examiner, the Altona police department and the labor program of the department of Human Resources and Development Canada, which has authority over inter-provincial facilities like rail lines and grain handling operations.
Investigation under way
The company could face prosecution as a result of the “intense” investigation by federal labor program officers, said manager Eldon Haw.
CanAmera was immediately given verbal direction to alter certain operations, he said.
“They were told to wait and do some review of safety standards,” Haw said from his Brandon office.
His office will forward a complete report on the investigation to the justice department for review, Haw said. It could be up to a month before it is finished.
Two investigators will interview company officials, witnesses, police and the one survivor to determine if there were violations of the federal labor code.
The plant continued operations the day after the incident, Schafer said, but shut down for several hours Nov. 25 and 26 so employees could attend the funerals of the deceased workers.
A team of counsellors was brought into the plant immediately after the incident to help staff deal with the tragedy.
CanAmera is 50 percent owned by Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Manitoba Pool Elevators, and 50 percent owned by Central Soya, owned by a private French company.
