Stelco and John Kenyon Ltd. charged after workers died after being burned at Nanticoke steel plant

More than a year after her son Gabriel Cabral died after being burned while working at Stelco's Nanticoke plant, Pam Fraser says it's still hard to believe it actually happened.

"How could it be?" said Fraser on Wednesday. "No mother, father, sister or brother or aunt should ever get that phone call when someone just goes to work."

Cabral, 32, and his coworker Sean MacPherson died after being burned by steam at Stelco Lake Erie Works plant on April 25, 2023.

Cabral died weeks later, on May 16, while MacPherson held on for several months but died in November, according to members of his family. They were repairing steel cladding on a quench tower, a structure used for cooling hot coke used in the steelmaking process.

The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is investigating what happened, and quickly issued corrective orders to Stelco and John Kenyon Ltd., the sheet metal contractor that was Cabral's direct employer after the deaths last year.

This month, on June 14, it laid charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act against both companies related to the incident, spokesperson Manuel Alas-Sevillano told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday.

Stelco was charged with:

• Two counts of failing to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker. "The defendant failed to ensure that the quench/mogul car was under the direct control of an operator who could ensure that the quench tower was free of workers before proceeding to quench the hot coke." Related to the second count, "the defendant failed to ensure that adequate lunch and/or break periods were scheduled for the quenching process, to ensure that the quenching process did not take place while workers were performing work on the quench tower."
• Failing to ensure the measures and procedures… were carried out. "The defendant failed to ensure the mogul/quench car was equipped with a device that enabled the operator to stop the car in an emergency," says the ministry.
• Failing to provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker. 

John Kenyon Limited was charged with the same set of charges except one. While Stelco was charged with failing to ensure measures and procedures were carried out property, John Kenyon was charged with failing to ensure that equipment, materials, and protective devices as prescribed… were provided. 

"The defendant failed to ensure a worker wore or used such personal protective equipment, clothing and devices as were necessary to protect the worker from the hot steam hazard to which the worker was exposed."

The companies' first court date is Sept. 6 in Cayuga.

Fraser says it's hard for the process to go on for so long after her son's death.

"I'm hanging in there," she said, through tears. "One day at a time."