The production company behind popular television shows like The Flash and Arrow has been given the biggest fines for safety violations in Burnaby this year.
Hannah-Rachel Production Services Limited was handed $75,000 in fines for three separate incidents in 2015 where three workers were seriously injured, according to WorkSafeBC.
WorkSafeBC’s penalties database noted in the first incident, a worker was troubleshooting electrical cables laid along a concrete floor bordered by a false floor. The worker fell through the false floor and landed on a concrete floor about four metres below. WorkSafeBC said the firm failed to ensure that guardrails or a fall-restraint system was used for work where a fall could occur.
The second incident saw a worker exit the work platform of a boom lift to step onto a ladder, which gave out, causing the worker to fall 2.5 metres to a deck below and another one metre farther to a concrete surface. WorkSafeBC said the firm failed to ensure that workers wore a personal fall arrest system while on an elevated work platform, and failed to ensure adequate supervision of the work activity. The agency noted other workers were laying flooring below the lift, preventing the boom from being lowered for exiting the work platform.
In the third incident, a worker’s gloved hand contacted the blade of an arbor saw and was drawn into the saw. WorkSafeBC said the firm failed to ensure that workers could not access hazardous points of operation on equipment and failed to provide workers with the information, instruction, training and supervision needed to ensure their health and safety. The agency said all three incidents were “high-risk violations.”
The fines were issued in May 2016. The database does not indicate specifically which shows were involved or exactly where the accidents took place, other than in Burnaby.
An update on the file dated Sept. 30 indicates the company is appealing the fines.
But Hannah-Rachel Production Services isn’t the only company to face large fines from an incident in Burnaby.
In February, Nova Drywall Ltd. was dinged $71,390 after setting up a baker’s scaffold for its workers to use at a job site inside a newly built residential tower. WorkSafeBC said it identified deficiencies with the scaffold’s maintenance and setup, noting while the scaffold was being disassembled, one of the firm’s workers was exposed to a risk of falling as much as six metres. The agency said it was a repeated high-risk violation.
So far, a total of 26 companies have been handed fines in 2016 related to work in Burnaby. Some are as small as $2,500.
The biggest fine in 2015 was slapped against BCS Contractors Ltd. for $60,000 related to the demolition of a home in Burnaby.
According to WorkSafeBC’s database, five of this firm’s workers were preparing a pre-1990 house for demolition by stripping the interior, when prevention officers inspected the worksite and found that the company allowed its workers to improperly bag asbestos-containing drywall and then dump that drywall in a bin in front of the house.
