In a tragic incident that took place at a Canadian Walmart, a 19-year-old woman died after getting trapped inside the store's walk-in oven.
The woman was working at Walmart's Halifax store in Nova Scotia when she entered a walk-in oven in their bakery on Saturday. The woman became trapped when the door shut and wouldn't open.
Panicked Co-workers Called Emergency Services About a 'Female Locked in an Oven'
Panicked workers then dialled emergency services. A dispatch officer has since opened up about the unfolding tragedy, revealing the call had mentioned that there was a "female locked in an oven in the bakery.
As the call went on, one emergency respondent said the "oven is on. Unsure if staff are unable to turn it off." By the time first responders arrived on the scene, they told dispatch the woman "was out of the oven." However, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators are now trying to determine how the employee died and working closely with the provincial Labour Department and the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner.
Walmart Issues Statement
In a statement, Walmart spokesperson Amanda Moss confirmed that the death involves a Walmart employee. "We are heartbroken and our deepest thoughts are with our associate and their family," she wrote. "We extend our sincerest condolences to those who were closest to them."
The woman had only been in Canada for a few years and was a member of the Sikh community. "It's pretty distressing, you know, young people come here with all kinds of hopes and dreams and they're working hard and then this is what happens," Satnam Singh Randhawa, chair of the Maritime Sikh Society board, told the CBC.
Walk-in ovens are commonly used in industrial baking settings for commercial-scale food production. A local labor department issued a stop-work order for the bakery and one piece of equipment at the store, CTV News reported. The Walmart location was also shut down for three days as police carried out their investigation, according to TV news station KTLA-5.
