Just an hour after a large distribution center in London, Ont., was evacuated in bitter cold, an Amazon worker collapsed and died.
The provincial labor ministry told local media on Friday that it is investigating the death of an employee who collapsed at his workplace on the night of January 14-15.
According to the company, a fire alarm went off around 11:10 p.m., forcing the complex's employees to go outside and be exposed to temperatures of around -15 degrees Celsius, a value closer to -20 when the wind factor is taken into account degrees.
The company assured that employees were given warm clothing during the evacuation and were able to re-enter the building 17 minutes later, at 11:27 p.m. They could rest and warm up in the room for three quarters of an hour before returning to their post.
The worker, identified as Paulo DeSouza Bezerra, a 50-year-old man from Brazil, died of a heart attack about an hour after returning to work.
Divergences
However, a statement from an evacuated employee collected by the London Free Press differs from the company's version.
According to this worker, who was not identified by the daily, employees would have spent more than 17 minutes outside, would not have had the right to warm up in their cars and the company would have run out of blankets it could have distributed to keep everyone warm to keep . These allegations were rejected by the company.
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched on the GoFundMe website to raise money for Paulo DeSouza Bezerra's funeral and to help his partner survive the coming months. As of Friday evening, nearly $18,000 had been raised.