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One person dead after workplace accident in Parksville

A man repairing a downspout died Thursday after he and his co-worker somehow came into contact with power lines and fell off a Parksville roof, says the shaken co-manager of the apartment building where the tragedy unfolded.
169 Moilliet Steet, Parksville
169 Moilliet Steet in Parksville where one man was killed and another seriously injured in a work accident. Credit: CHEK News

A man repairing a downspout died Thursday after he and his co-worker somehow came into contact with power lines and fell off a Parksville roof, says the shaken co-manager of the apartment building where the tragedy unfolded.

Valerie Hodgson said she was alerted by a tenant around 12:30 p.m. who called her to say that a man had fallen off the roof. She ran to the back of the three-storey Pacific Manor on Moilliet Street in an effort to help. “I kept telling him to wake up,” she said. But, “there was nothing we could do. He was already dead.”

The man, reportedly 31 and from Nanoose Bay, was a nice guy who had done work for her before, she said.

She had been joking with him a short time earlier before he started the job in the cold weather. The other worker, whom she estimated to be about the same age, was “in a lot of pain,” and in bad shape, she said. He was airlifted to hospital, said WorkSafeB.C.

RCMP contacted WorkSafe at 1:22 p.m., which sent three officers to the scene.

The B.C. Coroners Service has not confirmed the cause of death, said spokeswoman Barb McLintock.