On the 19th of September six roof trusses on the new machine room
building, which is under construction at the plant of the Ontario Paper
Company, Thorold, collapsed.
The building when completed will have fourteen trusses and at the
time of the accident six trusses had been erected with the exception
of riveting them. Seventy-five per cent. of the rivet holes had been
filled with proper bolts. The trusses were all tied together with
purlins of 6″ × 8″ Long Leaf Yellow Pine.
When the six trusses were finished the guy line which held No. 1 truss
was slacked off as it was felt that the steel work would support
itself. When the guy line was loose the entire six trusses simply
toppled over without any warning.
Mr. Sam Bartlett, who was working on this structure in the capacity of
iron worker was caught between the falling structure and an 18″ 1. beam
and was instantly killed. He was a resident of Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Careful examination of the steel was made after the accident and while
a number of theories have been advanced to explain the failure nothing
definite can be determined.
The collapse will not delay construction materially as the wreckage has
been cleared away and new trusses are rapidly being built.