Storage facility fined after fatal fall

NORTH BAY, ONT.—A self-storage facility has been fined $100,000 after a visitor to its facility fell through an open hole that was left for renovations and died.

Seavale Incorporated of North Bay, Ont. pleaded guilty to the June 4, 2014 incident and was sentenced in a North Bay court on Jan. 29, 2016. Seavale operates the facility at the site of an old Bomarc missile site on Highway 11 in the City of North Bay, a release from the Ministry of Labour (MOL) explains. It consists of 28 former silos that were converted to self-storage units by Seavale, the release reads, adding one of the units was renovated in 2013 by installing a wooden floor over the original concrete basement. At the back of the unit an opening, measuring about four-feet-by-nine feet, nine inches, was left in the floor.

"It was framed in anticipation of adding stairs to the basement in the future. On the date of the incident, the hole was not protected by any covering or guardrail," the MOL states.

A visitor then came to the unit to take a look at a pick-up truck being stored there by the person renting the unit. When the visitor bent down to look at the truck’s rear wheel, they fell about six feet onto the concrete floor.

The company pleaded guilty to failing as an employer to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstance for the protection of a worker, contrary to Section 25(2)(h) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).

"The OHSA applies because there were workers at the site who were exposed to the same hazard and the company is an ’employer’ as defined in the act," the MOL states.