Company fined $225,000 in fatal strip mall explosion
Last Updated: Thursday, October 12, 2006 | 1:25 PM ET
CBC News
Related
A construction company has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with an explosion that killed seven people in an Etobicoke strip mall three years ago.
Warren Bitulithic Limited was ordered to pay a fine of $225,000 with a 25 per cent victim surcharge of $56,250 under the Provincial Offences Act for its part in the incident.
On April 24, 2003, the company's construction workers ruptured a gas line, sparking a massive explosion that levelled the two-storey building on Bloor Street West near Kipling Avenue.
Four storefronts and residential apartments in the mall were destroyed, and the blast tore a hole in the side of a nearby home.
The company faced charges of digging without determining the exact location of an underground gas line and damaging an underground natural gas pipeline without permission.
Ontario's fuel safety agency, Technical Standards and Safety Authority, laid the charges, which are not criminal in nature.
The agency called it the largest fine in their history imposed by the courts.
Warren Bitulithic was one of three companies charged in the explosion.
Enbridge Gas and a subcontractor, Precision Utility Ltd., were charged with failing to provide accurate information about the location of the natural gas pipelines. Their trial continues.
With files from Canadian PressShare Tools
Latest Toronto News Headlines
- Truck dangles on overpass after 401 crash in Ajax
- A section of Highway 401 is closed for hours after a tractor-trailer collides with an SUV, slides off the highway and hangs perilously over the roadway below. more »
- GO Transit train damaged by debris on tracks
- A GO Transit train is damaged after striking a short track section that appears to have been deliberately laid over the rails. more »
- Everest team unable to bring down Toronto woman's body
- Bad weather has hampered the recovery team that is attempting to bring down the body of a Toronto woman who died trying to climb Mt. Everest. more »
- Man shot dead in Oshawa
- A man in is mid-30s is dead after he was shot at a house in Oshawa on Friday night. more »
Top News Headlines
- Teen struck by lightning in Ottawa dies
- The victim of a Friday lightning strike during a storm in east Ottawa has died, CBC News has learned. more »
- Syrian children massacred by the dozens, UN says
- More than 90 people have been killed by regime forces in a district of central Syria, with the head of the UN team in the country confirming at least 32 children and 60 adults were killed in an artillery attack. more »
- Missing Winnipeg children found in Mexico
- Two Winnipeg children reported missing and possibly in Mexico have been found alive, according to unofficial reports from an agency that works to find missing people. more »
- Everest team unable to bring down Toronto woman's body
- Bad weather has hampered the recovery team that is attempting to bring down the body of a Toronto woman who died trying to climb Mt. Everest. more »
- Everest victim's husband says family not seeking government help
- Serial carjacker gets life term for fatal crash
- Highway 401 crash in Ajax closes eastbound lanes
- Timmins fire crews aided by calmer winds
- Toronto throws open its doors
- GO Transit train damaged by debris on tracks
- 'Gay-straight alliances' get green light under Ontario bill
- Man shot dead in Oshawa
- 'Save me' last words of Mount Everest climber
