RCMP to provide update on deadly crane collapse in Kelowna, B.C. | CBC News

The crane collapsed at the Brooklyn building on Bernard Street in downtown Kelowna around 10:45 a.m. PT on Monday. The building is under construction and the development company said attributed to the collapse to a “catastrophic failure” on the work site.

The yellow steel fell into the office building next door as well as a seniors’ home. 

RCMP confirmed “multiple fatalities.” At least one person was missing as of Monday afternoon.

Paramedics took three patients to hospital with varying injuries.

Dorothy Bielecki felt the impact of the collapse from her law office facing St. Paul Street, around the corner from the collapse. She and her colleagues rushed outside to see the crane crumpled and a worker “shimmying” across the steel.

“After the crane had collapsed, one of the workers was crawling across one of the [crane] pieces to the building that was being built,” Bielecki recalled. “He made it there safely from what I saw, but I don’t know what happened to him afterward.”

The developer, Mission Group, said the people who were killed in the collapse were subcontractors. 

RCMP said a four-block perimeter around St. Paul Street, Doyle Avenue, Bertram Street and Bernard Avenue will remain cordoned off until the investigation is finished. The public is asked to stay away from the area, which is still under a formal evacuation.

The city declared a state of emergency, which will last for the next six days. 

Evacuees are asked to go to the Salvation Army at 1480 Sutherland Ave., and anyone looking for someone who may be injured or is unaccounted for should go to the Parkinson Recreation Centre at 1700 Parkinson Way.