Upon my return to Canada following a 2-year contract in Zambia, I started work as a tunnel inspector at the Wreck Cover power project of Nova Scotia Power Corp.
The project, which was about an hour’s drive from Sydney on the Cabot Trail, included an upper and lower camp for the workers. During my only winter at the upper camp, snowfall reached 20 ft. The lower camp, which was only 20 miles away, received half that amount.
During one night shift, I decided to inspect a ventilation raise the contractor was driving. I was surprised, to say the least, by what I saw.
The vertical raise, which was half-finished, measured 5 by 5 ft. and was designed to be about 50 ft. long. The contractor had drilled pilot holes and collared them in an outcrop depression on surface. What he did not do, however, was plug the collars of the holes in order to prevent water drainage. I decided to inspect the raise for the first time that night.
The first thing I noticed was that the ladders in the raise were fastened only at the bottom, which made climbing and balancing difficult. In addition, the staging at the top appeared to be constructed of two-by-fours, but the precarious ladder prevented me from getting close enough for a good look. I don’t know how a miner could drill a round from it.
After my inspection, I remarked to a miner that anybody who would work in the raise under such conditions must be crazy. The miner, as it turned out, was a new employee hired to work there. He later refused to enter the raise, and was subsequently fired. He was rehired the next day, however, when he explained his refusal to the general manager.
Some years after my employ at the Wreck Cove Power Project, I was living in Timmins, where I was also taking a motorcycle riding course. The test in the course was to be given by an examiner from Thunder Bay, who introduced himself as a native of Cape Breton. He looked familiar and I asked if he was from Port Hawkesbury. He was. I then asked if he, at one point, had been fired from his last job only to be rehired. Again, his answer was yes.
He was curious by this time, and he recognized me once I reminded him of the raise incident. He was the miner who refused to work there following my inspection. Despite this chance reunion, I obtained my motorcycle driver’s licence
— The author, a mining engineer, resides in South Porcupine, Ont..
Be the first to comment on "ODDS’N’SODS — Hair-raising"