TORONTO -- A trust fund has been set up to help the families of four workers who plunged to their deaths from scaffolding on the 13th-floor of a Rexdale highrise on Christmas Eve.
Proceeds will also be used to bury Aleksey Blumberg, 32, one of two men still unclaimed at the coroner's office after plunging almost two weeks ago from a 2757 Kipling Ave. highrise.
And members of Toronto's Uzbekistan community are rallying to raise airfare to return Fayzullo Fazilov, 31, to his homeland for burial. Fazilov had been working to support his son, daughter, wife, four sisters and elderly parents who live there.
3 OTHER VICTIMS
Also killed in the plunge was Vladimir Korostin, 40, a refugee claimant and father of two from Uzbekistan, and Alexander Bondorev, 25, of Latvia, who has already been buried in the GTA. A fifth man, Dilshod Marupov, 21, of Uzbekistan, remains in the intensive care unit of Sunnybrook hospital after the fall.
Alla Bass, a friend of the Blumberg family, said proceeds of a trust fund will be shared equally among the four families and pay for Aleksey's burial in Toronto likely this week or next.
Blumberg's mother and sister cannot attend the service from Uzbekistan because they couldn't obtain travel documents. Bass said.
"His wife is grieving and the family want to say their goodbyes," she said yesterday. "The family would like to have him buried as soon as possible."
Bass said a Tragedy on Christmas Eve Trust Fund has been established at TD Bank branches. The account number is 1076-6432077.
$10GS RAISED
Uzbek community activist Bakhtier Shakhnazarov said about $10,000 has been raised of the $12,500 required to send Fazilov home for burial.
Under Muslim laws, Fazilov should have been buried on Christmas Day, Shakhnazarov said.
Toronto Police Supt. Ron Taverner said an investigation is continuing with provincial labour ministry officials into the cause of the incident.
A vigil is planned for 7 p.m. tomorrow at the construction site.
TOM.GODFREY@SUNMEDIA.CA
