Workers' bodies recovered at Toronto highrise - Action News
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Toronto

Workers' bodies recovered at Toronto highrise

Crews at the scene of a fatal Toronto construction accident removed the remaining two bodies Friday from the wreckage of a collapse that killed four workers the day before.

Questions raised whether safety harnesses were being used

Crews at the scene of a fatal Toronto construction accident removed the remaining two bodiesFriday fromthe wreckage of acollapsethat killed four workers the day before.

A swing stage atan apartment buildingnear Kipling Avenue and Steeles Avenue West snapped Thursday afternoon,plungingfour men13 storeys to their deaths. Another man was critically injuredand remained in hospital Friday night with life-threatening injuries.

Twobodies were recovered shortly after the incident, but parts of the work platform continued to dangleamid strong winds,making it unsafe to retrieve the other bodies until the swing stage could be secured Friday.

The staging gave way just after 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday while the men wererepairing balconies on the 18-storeybuilding. People who live in theapartment complex phoned 911 to report the accident, police said.

"The scene is so terrible. Most of the people have just died on the spot," said Steve Mohube, a resident in the building. "It was really, you know, disbelief for the entire building."

Police said all the men had safety harnesses, but they could not saywhether the harnesseshad beenattached. Construction worker Giulio Paglia, who was at the scene Friday,said he doesn't think they were.

"These guys wearing safety lines all the time, they should have been hanging there, not fall down," he said.

Investigators from Ontario's Ministry of Labour and Toronto police are looking into the incident.

Police said the victimswere of European backgrounds, but they wouldn't release identifying information until their families could be notified.