Submitted photo/Catherine Phillippe

By Chad Klassen

CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT

Worker suffers burns at construction site downtown after electrical explosion

Mar 8, 2021 | 12:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — A construction worker is being treated at Royal Inland Hospital for burns after a small electrical explosion at a construction site in the 400-block of St. Paul Street downtown.

Kamloops Fire Rescue (KFR) and RCMP were called to the scene around 11 a.m. on Monday (March 8) to reports of the explosion.

“We arrived on scene and there was a patient that had been knocked out, laying on the fourth-floor scaffolding,” KFR Acting Captain Dean Austinson said. “We sent four firefighters, two from our rescue truck, two from Engine 3 up to make patient contact.”

The site supervisor told KFR he heard a small explosion that caused a hole in the tarping. Firefighters said the explosion originated off the hydro pole right next to the building. Businesses nearby noted a power surge in the area.

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The patient is at hospital and expected to be okay.

“Patient was awake, suffering from burns from his armpits down,” Austinson said.

The construction site has been shut down for the day as WorkSafe BC investigates the incident.