Grief counsellors will offer services Thursday to residents of a small British Columbia town where four men were killed, apparently by toxic fumes, at a decommissioned mine.
(CBC)
FROM MAY 17, 2006: B.C. mine incident claims 4 lives
"Some of the firemen who attended the scene indicated to me this was one of the worst incidents they'd encountered," Jim Ogilvie, the mayor of Kimberley, B.C., told CBC News.
"They were visibly shaking when I talked to them."
The four victims bodies were recovered Wednesday from a small wooden shed at Teck Cominco's dormant Sullivan mine.
The shed, which measures just nine square metres, has a hole in its floor through which technicians perform monthly tests on water draining from the former lead, zinc and silver mine.
The first victim, a contract employee, was apparently overcome by fumes when he entered the shed Monday to perform tests. His spouse sounded the alert when the man hadn't been heard from two days later.
A Teck Cominco employee called 911 on Wednesday when he discovered the first man's body.
He and two paramedics who rushed to the scene also succumbed to the fumes when they went into the shed.
All four bodies were recovered by a fire rescue crew equipped with oxygen masks.
'What we're dealing with today is something that's unexpected and unexperienced in our company," said Dave Parker, Teck Cominco's director of corporate affairs.
Fred Herman, B.C.'s chief mines inspector, wouldn't speculate about the exact cause of the deaths.
"We do know there was an oxygen-deficient atmosphere inside the shed," Herman said.
"What caused it? We don't know yet."
One of the victims was a father of two, whose son was scheduled to be married this weekend, CBC News has learned.
Another was a paramedic who was just 21 years old.
Most people in Kimberley, a community of about 6,600, are in shock, said high school teacher Jerry Brennan.
"This is the worst thing that could happen," Brennan said. "An attempt to try to help someone … just went in a terribly wrong direction."
The Sullivan mine closed in December 2001 after 92 years of operation. At its height, it employed 1,000 people.