E-Malt.com News article: Canada, QC: Montreal Molson Coors brewery workers injured in a workplace accident

Two Molson Coors brewery workers who suffered severe burns about midnight on November, 29, are expected to recover, National Post reported on November, 30.

“We don’t fear for their lives - otherwise they would have told me,” Stephane Lacroix, a spokesman for the Teamsters union in Quebec, said in a late-morning interview.

Two of the roughly two dozen firefighters called to the scene suffered lesser injuries.

Of the injured Molson workers, Lacroix added, “one of them was burned in the eye.”

Other than that, “the confusion level is so high right now that I cannot disclose any information, to make sure that I’m not saying anything wrong towards the families, towards the company, towards everyone involved”.

“I don’t even know if the families [of the two Molson men] are aware of what’s going on right now.”

The workers were rushed from the brewery to a Montreal burn centre.

“At first look, the first thoughts we have are for the guys who are burned, and for their families. We’re going to make sure that everything goes well from now.”

Colin Wheler, the brewing giant’s designated media contact, did not respond to a request for additional details when called at his office in Denver, Colorado. Nor did the company’s emergency-response centre in Denver return a call there seeking information.

Some reports indicated the incident involved caustic soda, or lye, a corrosive substance often used as a cleaning agent.

However, Lacroix said he was not in any position to confirm that.

Montreal police Const. Yannick Ouimet referred all inquiries to Molson Coors and the provincial workplace-safety board.

At Molson Coors in Montreal, communications official Marie-Helene Lagace did not return a call. Neither did CSST communications official Emilie Pelletier.


02 December, 2011