Former employees of Eastway Tank Pump & Meter Ltd. have come forward to allege a history of safety lapses at the Ottawa company prior to last Thursday’s explosion that killed six workers and left a seventh critically injured.
The allegations include at least three previous fires, improper storage of flammable chemicals, and “hot” trucks — tankers that still contained fuel or flammable residue — being exposed to sparks from welding and other activities at the Merivale Road facility.
CBC News spoke with three former employees who corroborated details of each other’s accounts of the working conditions at the tanker truck manufacturer,