Crane and Hoist Canada

News Safety & Risk Management
Crane collapses into downtown Toronto building and crews working to dismantle

July 20, 2020  By Crane & Hoist Canada


A construction crane collapsed and fell into a downtown Toronto building on Thursday, July 16 and crews have been working to dismantle the crane.

Police said the crane operator had minor injuries, but was able to climb down on his own.

Images from the site at Simcoe and Wellington streets Thursday showed the crumpled crane collapsed on top of the building Thursday morning. Three buildings were evacuated as a precaution and the damaged crane remained atop the office building into Friday morning.

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Toronto fire said Thursday that they were concerned about the possibility that the structure could further collapse and established a “collapse perimeter” around the bottom of the crane.

In a statement to CP24 on Friday, PCL Constructors Canada said that they are working to dismantle the crane “with safety at top of mind.”

“We can confirm that the crane was secured and that the site and neighbouring building were deemed safe by an independent engineer,” the statement read.

The company said an engineered dismantle plan was approved Thursday, but a decision was made to wait until daylight because of inclement weather. The cause of the crane collapse is still unknown.


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