Donations for families of workers killed in Kelowna crane collapse climb to almost $200K

Workers at the Site C construction site near Fort St. John are feeling the pain suffered by the families of the five men killed when a construction crane collapsed in Kelowna on Monday.

“It’s so sad and everyone feels it,” Jennie Gagnon, project administrator with Aecon-Flatiron-Dragados-EBCPartnership, said in an email to iNFOnews.ca. “Our safety department will try to get the families a little more help.”

There are nine similar cranes at work at the massive Site C hydro-electric construction site, some of which may be as tall as the one that fell in Kelowna.

“Our employees are reacting to this by trying to find out how to help the families, because this hits home for them,” Troy Van Bostelen, the company’s communications manager, said. “It’s a similar type of work, similar industry similar equipment.”

The plan is to send information to workers tomorrow to let them know how to make financial contributions.

But their care goes beyond the four workers to include the fifth man who died in the tragedy. Gagnon was hoping there was one central fund for the five men who died in the accident so their workers can contribute equally to each family.

The fifth man was not connected to the project but was at work in a neighbouring building that the falling crane crushed. His identity has not been disclosed.

The construction workers who died included two brothers from Salmon Arm, one man from Edmonton and one from Kelowna.

READ MORE: High-vis safety vests displayed to honour victims of Kelowna crane collapse

The GoFundMe campaign for Eric and Patrick Stemmer has raised more than $112,000 and can be seen here.

The fund for Jared Zook is close to $40,000 and can been accessed here.

Donations for Cailen Vilness have been more than $35,000. That fund is here.

READ MORE: Collapsed Kelowna crane that killed 5 coming down; evacuees may be home soon

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