Excerpt from the OH&S Canada magazine
The lack of training or just the lack of understanding of a confined space and its associated hazards was at the heart of an accident at a Quebec campsite. This happens a few years ago, (August 2004, to be exact) and an employee of Camping Lac Du Repos, located in the municipality of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, was trying to unclog the outlet pipe of the campground’s septic system when the deadly events were set in motion.
An alarm system that could have warned three workers about dangerous water levels was disconnected when they drowned at a Quebec mine, last October 30, 2009. The company, Metanor Resources Ltd., sent the three miners down the shaft in an elevator at the Bachelor Lake gold mine in Desmaraisville, Quebec. They were there to help rehabilitate a mine shaft. The miners entered the cage on the six level and headed toward the 12th but encountered water about halfway through the 10th level. The elevator operator grew concerned when the workers did not signal that they reached their destination.
It took rescue workers three days to recover the miners, whose bodies were frozen in blocks of ice.