City of Winnipeg orders full assessment of Fort Gibraltar after students, teacher injured
CBC
City officials have ordered Festival du Voyageur to conduct a full assessment of the Fort Gibraltar site in Winnipeg's St. Boniface area after 18 people — all but one of them children — were injured during a school trip to the site Wednesday.
The injured were taken to hospital after an elevated walkway about five metres high collapsed while people were on it and under it.
The collapse happened shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
City inspectors as well as provincial Workplace Health and Safety workers were at site Thursday to assess the damage and get a better sense of why the elevated walkway collapsed.
Following their inspection, the city directed Festival du Voyageur to retain a professional engineer to undertake an assessment of the entire complex for any unsafe conditions and conduct any necessary repairs.
The site will remain closed until that assessment has occurred and any work that is required is completed.
Michael Jack, Winnipeg's chief administrative officer, said he anticipates the assessment will be completed soon.
"They [Festival du Voyageur] are taking this very seriously. We understand they are and so we are assuming they have already taken the steps to retain the engineer and get them on site," he said.
"I can't predict how quickly those engineers are going to be able to perform their work, but we would like answers very quickly."
The reason for the structure's collapse hasn't been confirmed yet.
Fort Gibraltar is a 1978 replica of two earlier forts of the same name. The original fort was used as a centre for fur trade commerce and early settlers in Winnipeg.
The historic site is now owned by the city and managed by Festival du Voyageur, an annual winter event that celebrates the area's fur-trade history.
As of 10 a.m. Thursday, two patients remained in hospital, both in stable condition, said a Shared Health spokesperson.
The children are 10- and 11-year-olds from St. John's-Ravenscourt School who were on a field trip, the school confirmed in a statement. Three of the children were taken to hospital in unstable condition, while the remainder were in stable condition.
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