At 3h30 Friday afternoon Dec 2nd crews from the Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services were deployed urgently to the north west corner of Hurontario Street and Burnhamthorpe Road for a broken pipe filling a chamber where three workers were positioned. The incident is unfolding right now where a search and rescue mission is in its 8th hour tonight for one unaccounted worker trapped in an underground water main chamber while the two other people are believed to be uninjured. Trench rescue firefighters who established a nearby command post and construction workers have been using pumps to empty the flooded confined space in hopes of finding the missing victim. Police have blocked all major roads leading to the intersection of Hurontario & Burnhamthorpe and the Ministry of Labor along with the Public Works, Water Division of the Region of Peel are on scene. Water could be seen being pumped out of the underground cavity by a firetruck's engine and spilling onto the roadway for hours while crews attempted to empty the narrow passage. The water division of the Region of Peel reportedly managed to shut the water off about 2 hours after the start of the incident. Radio communications heard in this montage between firefighters at the scene and the dispatch 911 central give a chilling and important insight as to what types of dangers these construction crews were exposed during their work as well as how to ensure the safety of the rescuers during the operation. Scanner audio was recorded during a 30 minute time span from 3h45 to 4h15 and was condensed into the first half of the video. The second half of the video shows an aerial view of the magnitude of the event that had a portion of the downtown core of Mississauga shut down to all vehicular traffic. The victim, an unidentified 54 year old man was found deceased at about midnight and after a total of 8 hours of relentless work by search and rescue technicians. Despite the investigation being in its early stages and involving multiple agencies, it appears that this work accident is the result of the start of the LRT expansion project along Hurontario Street in which the lanes will be widened to allow the Light Rail wagons to travel in the center. In order to modify the width of the roadway, sewage pipes have to be moved and one pipe apparently ruptured during this process. The broken pipe started leaking water rising at one foot per minute in the confined space believed to be several flights of stairs deep. Three people were working in the underground tunnel at that time and because of the fast rising pace of the water, one of them likely drowned after being unable to escape.
www.the4kguy.com
twitter.com/the4kguy
youtube.com/the4kguy
facebook.com/the4kguy
instagram.com/the4kguy
Facebook Comments