3 people injured after scaffolding collapses in Toronto’s east end

Three people were injured after scaffolding used during a roof repair on a row of townhomes in Toronto’s east end collapsed on Monday afternoon.

The incident happened in The Beaches neighbourhood, on Queen Street East, near Silver Birch Avenue, just west of Victoria Park Avenue.

Police told CP24 in an email that they were called to that area just before 1:45 p.m., but the incident happened about 15 minutes earlier.

At the scene, first responders found three men with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, Toronto Paramedic Services said. All three were rushed to a trauma centre.

Police later described their injuries as minor in nature.

Area resident Casie Jordon said she heard a “lot of commotion” when the collapse occurred. “There was a lot of banging, like people fell. I don’t know if there was screaming. I think my mom heard screaming or like somebody was in pain,” she told CTV News Toronto.

“We heard like a lot of voices, people saying, ‘Are you okay, are you okay?’ There was a lot going on.”

The contractor, Trevor Shand, of GT Shand Contracting, told CTV News Toronto that two of his workers fell 18 to 20 feet, adding that work on the roof has been paused.

Shand said one of them got a cut on his head while the other sprained his wrist. He didn’t provide any details about what injuries the third worker sustained.

“We had two sets of scaffolding set up where you can really basically see it. And then the scaffolding just came out and two of my guys came down,” Shand told CTV News Toronto.

“We don’t know why the scaffolding gave out but you can see the arms are broken on it. So, it could have been like old scaffolding. I don’t know but everyone’s fine, so I’m just a little worried about it.”

Shand, who said they’ve been working for about a month to replace shingles on the building, said he reported the incident to the Ministry of Labour. He said is waiting for them to show up before he can enter the job site.

The ministry confirmed to CTV News Toronto that is has been notified about the incident and said that it has assigned an inspector.

With files form CTV News Toronto’s Allison Hurst