 Oxana Afanasenko, left, and Irina Cherniakova, right, wives of Aleksey Blumberg and Vladimir Korostin, who fell to their deaths on Christmas Eve. (Dave Thomas/QMI Agency).
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The owner of the company repairing the balconies of the Etobicoke highrise where four men fell 13 stories to their deaths Christmas Eve said yesterday he's saddened by the tragedy.
Also yesterday, ministry of labour investigators oversaw the removal of the swing stage that hung along the east side of the apartment building at 2757 Kipling Ave.
Toronto Police, the ministry of labour and City of Toronto investigators are working to determine what caused the swing stage to break in half, leaving four men, including Vladimir Korostin, 40, a father of two girls, and newlywed Aleksey Blumberg, 33, to fall to their deaths. A fifth man suffered severe head injuries.
Korostin's wife Irina Cherniakova, 36, told the Sun her husband apparently wasn't wearing a safety harness. She said she was told six men were working on the scaffold and that there appears to have only been two safety lines.
The scaffold spanned two balconies. Also dangling from the roof was a metal container, likely full of concrete.
There appears to have been four pieces of the swing stage joined together and that it broke apart in the middle.
A source at the scene said the investigation is expected to be a lengthy one.
"As I am sure you can understand the events of Dec. 24 have deeply saddened myself and my company," Joel Swartz, of Metron Construction, wrote in one e-mail yesterday.
"Metron is in the process of contacting the families," he wrote in a second e-mail. "We extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those involved in this tragic event.
"Metron Construction Corp. was the general contractor and the workers were subcontractors," Swartz wrote. "Given Metron's ongoing internal investigation and those being conducted by the ministry of labour and the police, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further on the matter."
The city-issued a building permit allowing for balcony guard repairs was issued Aug. 10. But that permit was superceded by a stop-work order issued the same day of the deaths and taped to glass in the building's foyer.
The order, signed by John Dunn with the Toronto Building Division, alleges a "swing stage failure at approximately 12th floor resulted in two sections of a swing stage on east facade being held by a single anchor creating an unsafe condition."
The order demands the building owner "immediately engage the services of a professional engineer to evaluate the conditions of the building" and to "recommend procedure for removal" of the swing stage.
A source said the building received no damage.
