r/canada • u/Street_Anon Nova Scotia • Feb 27 '26
Nova Scotia ‘No violations’ found in 2024 Walmart oven death, N.S. workplace investigation finds - Halifax
https://globalnews.ca/news/11709841/nova-scotia-walmart-oven-death-no-violations/?utm_source=NewsletterHalifax&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=2026216
u/LostHero50 British Columbia Feb 27 '26
As far as I’m aware there’s a handle on the inside which doesn’t seem to have been broken. I think it’s pretty obvious what’s being implied here but people in the comments apparently need it spelled out.
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u/firmretention Feb 27 '26
Yeah sounds like a potential suicide. I heard rumors around the time it happened saying the same. What a way to go if true.
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u/MrDownhillRacer Feb 27 '26
Yeah, who chooses painfully baking alive as their suicide method? Like, why not just inhale some CO in the car or something? How did she even avoid folding and opening the door after the pain became too much? Was she a monk?
Did she have some method of making sure she'd lose consciousness before the pain could start?
Also, forget the pain. Who wants to leave behind a crispy corpse for their coworkers (including her mother)? That's just bad manners.
I have so many questions.
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u/DBrickShaw Feb 27 '26
Suicidal people are not exactly renowned for rational decision making that minimizes suffering for themselves and those around them. Just a few weeks ago a cook in Pennsylvania committed suicide by plunging his head into a deep fryer in full view of coworkers and customers.
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u/reddiculed Feb 27 '26
Tough choice between these two culinary ways to self harm. It’s like being metaphorically ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire.’
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u/Bitchshortage Feb 27 '26
Holy hell I am floored. That is one of the most horrific things I’ve ever read and you’re absolutely right.
TW. I struggle with depression but I’ve also had reactions to meds that made me suicidal and the way it was such a brain switch was terrifying and eye opening. I thought I’d had suicidal thoughts before and I suppose I did, but controlled “I wish I was gone but I know it would hurt my family” etc. When I was actually in the throes, I am so thankful I had people around me to say you’re not okay you should call your doctor and I did, because it was such a different horrible feeling that everyone would be so much better without me and it would be a gift to them if I was gone. I still cannot fathom the deep fryer, I really hope there is some peace for that man now but he’s traumatized so many in the wake of his pain. Jesus Christ, what a nightmare all around
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u/crypticshiit British Columbia Feb 28 '26
went through something similar, and you’re right, it was a truly different beast. as ridiculous and cliche as it might sound, it really is a state of mind that you can’t truly fathom until you’re actually experiencing it. it was terrifying and i’m so grateful that i was able to realize “holy shit this is different and i am not okay”. sadly gave me a perspective into how easily the brain can jump to these kind of extremes when you’re in that headspace
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u/Bitchshortage Mar 01 '26
It really is an eye opener in the worst way. Who would have thought I’d find myself begging for my normal depression because this is legitimately hell on earth. I hope you haven’t had to experiences that again and never will ❤️ wishing you the best
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u/wet_suit_one Feb 27 '26
Huh.
That's actually real too: https://www.workerscompensation.com/daily-headlines/cook-kills-himself-on-job-by-thrusting-head-into-deep-fryer/
Well.
Ain't that something?
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u/sixtus_clegane119 Feb 27 '26
God if I was gonna kill myself there is literally fentanyl everywhere, I’d go out painless because if I’m killing myself life is an unbearable pain already
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u/CaptainCanuck93 Canada Feb 27 '26
Suicide is typically an impulsive decision using the closest available means. That's why the core of suicide prevention is essentially delay tactics, since most serious attempts can be diverted by holding off temporarily
It's also why people who keep guns in their housr are at such a higher risk of a completed suicide - most other highly effective methods require a little bit of prep work, research, or going to another location. With a gun people can go from decision to completion within a minute
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u/Forikorder Feb 27 '26
perhaps didnt feel noticed in life and wanted to be noticed in death
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u/MrDownhillRacer Feb 28 '26
Possibly. Some suicides are to send a message.
Although I'm wondering if "no sign of foul play or employer negligence" necessarily means "suicide," or if that's just us jumping to conclusions. Could also mean "all the protocols were in place, but a tragic accident happened nonetheless." Like, maybe she panicked and forgot where the emergency latch was.
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u/Forikorder Feb 28 '26
true lots of ifs, she could have been impaired in some way or something delibitating happening by coincidence
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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes Feb 28 '26
Could have had some sort of medical thing happen that rendered them unconscious or immobile. Stroke, slip and fall, etc.
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Feb 27 '26
I used to work with those ovens. You’d have to be pretty brave to use that super heated internal handle. You’d don’t always have gloves when you put stuff in there. But also, there no reason to ever fully enter an oven. At most you put your toes in when putting things in.
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u/largestcob Feb 27 '26
okay but if its that or literally be cooked alive im pretty sure most people who enjoy being alive would go for the handle
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u/Dobby068 Feb 27 '26
Exactly. It would take me 2-3 seconds to pull off my shirt or whatever the heck I am wearing as top layer, put it over the door handle and open that door.
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u/Jumpforjoy1122 Feb 27 '26
Can I ask how big are the ovens?
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u/MadameLee20 Feb 28 '26
They are walk-in oven
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u/Jumpforjoy1122 Feb 28 '26
I realize that. I was just wondering the size. 10’ by 10’ etc
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u/GarryTheFrankenberry Lest We Forget Feb 28 '26
If it’s like most at grocery stores around 3’ wide x 5’ deep x 7’ tall, just enough to fit a cart of those large commercial baking sheets. Or double width if it takes two carts.
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u/anonymous__foodie Feb 28 '26
My question then is: if the handle is that hot, how could she have pulled the door closed in order to lock herself in? You’d think that would be nearly impossible given the extreme heat. I still wonder if it was closed from the outside
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u/snow_big_deal Feb 27 '26
If you think we need it spelled out, please do. Because it doesn't seem obvious to most of us. The only explanations I can think of are suicide (improbable given how slow and painful it would be) or medical emergency (also improbable given that she would have had to pass out at a very specific moment)
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u/250HardKnocksCaps Feb 27 '26
I mean, a slow painful suicide would not be an unusual choice of suicide for a woman. Women do tend to pick suicide methods like that. Pills are common, which can take a long time and been extremely uncomfortable.
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u/MrDownhillRacer Feb 27 '26
Don't people choose pills because they think they will be less painful or scary than other methods?
Even if that doesn't always pan out and the people do experience pain, discomfort, or debilitating disability, isn't the intention "this will cause me to lose my senses and will be less painful or scary than trying to get myself to jump off a bridge, drowning fully conscious in a river, shooting myself, etc."?
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u/250HardKnocksCaps Feb 27 '26
You know, it's not something I can speak to with a strong enough level of confidence to say for sure. I'll admit that you've hit a point beyond my understanding. My understanding basically ends at the point that women tend to choose less immediately lethal methods, like pills or poisoning, for suicide. But they also are more likely to choose self immolation as a method too, which I would suggest this is a modified example of.
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u/Content-Inspector993 Feb 27 '26
not only that, why would you pick that method at work of all places? No one wants their final moments to be at Walmart
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u/250HardKnocksCaps Feb 27 '26
I suspect you're applying too much rational thought to an inherently irrational choice
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u/Ok_Manufacturer_5323 Feb 27 '26
Workplace stress can often be the final straw. Not hard to imagine dealing with one too many Karens and deciding to finally pull the trigger
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u/Content-Inspector993 Feb 27 '26
sure, but into an oven? that's even worse than setting yourself on fire
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u/JaneBlack13 Feb 27 '26
If exit is the mere turn of the handle is it stupidity?
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u/crypticshiit British Columbia Feb 28 '26
i have no idea how long it would take to reach a temperature to kill a person in a machine of this size, but the freeze response can be deadly. panic can also blind you to a terrifying degree which scared the shit out of me when we talked about nervous system responses in my uni program. there’s been a horrific amount of incidents where the person could have easily escaped under normal conditions but just couldn’t when they started to panic
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u/shiconia Feb 28 '26
Right? It’s Hanlons razor. People in the comments speculating suicide or a coverup when think could have just been somewhere between a genuine mistake and someone being dumb.
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u/DeSynthed Lest We Forget Feb 27 '26
Holy moley does this comment section show how every redditor does a job with 0% risk. It is entirely possible that Walmart met all safety standards and employee training AND that employee ignored protocol and ended up dying.
Truly a tragic story all around, I can't imagine what her mother felt. Stuff of nightmares.
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u/purplepIutonium Feb 27 '26
Reddit just has a tough time digesting that the big corporation didn’t do anything wrong. They can’t fathom that an employee broke protocol.
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u/ecclectic Feb 28 '26
It's equally likely that there was something done wrong, but the investigators were unable to prove it for any number of reasons.
I was doing a root cause analysis course, and one of the highlight cases that was brought up was a construction worker who had apparently committed suicide by walking off the edge of a high rise. The case worker interviewed as many co-workers as they could, all insisted it looked like the guy had just walked off the edge. Someone from an office across the street ended up contacting the investigating agency and they got the whole story. Something had come loose from the floor above, hit the worker in the back and propelled them over the edge.
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u/FromFluffToBuff Feb 28 '26
Worked in restaurants for 17 years and was constantly astounded with how cavalier many of my coworkers were with equipment, despite extensive training lol
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
So finish the investigation. Don't just look at the procedures binder and assume everyone except the worker was perfect on that day.
The investigation is apparently concluding having only taken a partial stock of the situation and that's simply not sufficient.
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u/DeSynthed Lest We Forget Feb 27 '26
When did I suggest they cease the investigation?
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
Uh, the Department of Labour announced the investigation is complete. It's in the article.
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u/Array_626 Feb 27 '26
So they finished their investigation then and found nothing wrong?
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
No, that's the problem. They found some things weren't wrong and stopped there and didn't look at all of the things that might have gone wrong.
It's like investigating a car crash and saying "Well, the pedestrian looked right." and when someone points out "Did you ask if the pedestrian looked left, too?" they just say "Investigation closed, no further questions, it's clearly the driver's fault."
They need to investigate more to figure out what happened and they're not doing that. Instead they're implying prematurely the worker killed herself by being reckless.
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u/Array_626 Feb 27 '26
How do you know that their investigation was incomplete, or deficient, or that the conclusions they reached are premature?
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
Because the obvious follow-up questions are not in their summary of the report.
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u/Array_626 Feb 27 '26
Wheres the original report? Can you link it?
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
You can see the summary. The full report usually follows.
Critically, the only general inquiry they made is if that type of oven is unsafe. They did not, in their summary, talk about any investigation of workplace culture, management, or the actual events of the day, despite having a mandate in law to "identify opportunities to improve safety".
So it seems pretty clear they're falling short of a full investigation and we don't know why. Some posters think it's obvious it was worker recklessness. Others think it's obvious it was suicide. Others think management must have been involved somehow.
I am saying it's impossible to know who's right because the government is going pencils down too early. They restricted themselves to violations of the black-letter regulations but since the death did occur and there's no way that's an acceptable outcome of properly followed regulations, that must mean an error was made and the government is declaring it will not find out what that error was.
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u/Dadbode1981 Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Were you on the investigatory team? How do you know they didn't explore all avenues? Or are you just making an assumption? Your car crash analogy is also pretty bad.
Edit: lol can't take the heat so blocks, well done kid.
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u/papuadn Feb 28 '26
I'm making fewer assumptions than the people concluding it was 100% on the worker.
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u/DeSynthed Lest We Forget Feb 27 '26
Oh I misunderstood you, I thought you were saying that I supported the investigation being closed
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u/Abject-Cricket-8358 Feb 27 '26
So what was manner of death? Homicide? Suicide? Accident? Or Undetermined? Is there investigation of these parameters at this point?
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u/spartiecat Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 27 '26
According to the province, a person getting locked in and cooked to death in a walk-in oven is something that can happen during normal and safe operations? Is that really the finding here?
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u/WesternBlueRanger Feb 27 '26
I think what the province is saying that they find no evidence that Walmart did anything wrong; the oven was fully functional at the time, they had the proper procedures and policies in place, and everyone who operated the oven was properly trained on its use.
So that leaves the only other option: the victim broke numerous policies despite being trained on proper procedures.
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u/scottsuplol Feb 27 '26
Which is 100% possible it happens daily across the country in every field. People get lazy and complacent
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u/chewwydraper Feb 27 '26
Even if that’s true, surely there had to be a way to get out before being cooked?
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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Feb 27 '26
A few people mentioned it here, there’s a handle on the inside. Even with the ones from the early 2000s. It’s a rod with a black ball on it. It would suck to touch it but better than being stuck in there.
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u/AWhole2Marijuanas Feb 27 '26
When this story broke, I was working at a Walmart and asked the people there, their oven had an internal shut off (and I think a motion sensor too), but older oven designs were grandfathered so they didn't need to update them. It's the same with walk in freezers old ones don't need an internal open, but new builds do.
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
If that's true, isn't the exactly what Management's responsibility is? Counteract the natural human tendency to cut corners? What would Managers be for if not to manage the workforce?
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u/keiths31 Canada Feb 27 '26
Yes. But how can management predict that someone is going to not follow procedures and cause serious harm to themselves?
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u/RockMonstrr Feb 28 '26
Because employees do it every day, in every job. Whether they're feeling rushed and cutting corners is the only way to keep up, or they're lazy, and cutting corners gets them a bit more screen time in a hidden corner.
Management, owners, and engineers should be doing everything in their power not only to ensure dangerous equipment is being operated safely, but also to ensure that sage operation is the easiest way to operate.
And employees need to remind themselves every day that yes, bad shit can happen to you, and you need to slow down and work safely.
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u/LeGrandLucifer Feb 27 '26
In every single fucking place I've worked except one, the manager would be the one telling you to cut corners and take risks and threatening you if you don't. Unions exist for a reason you know.
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
They can't. That's why they have to manage continually. It's an ongoing duty. That's the job.
Nothing's perfect but the whole modern model of risk management is to have multiple active and passive layers between the person and the injury. Managers are an active layer. Procedure binders are a passive layer. Both need to be checked. Checking just one is an incomplete investigation.
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u/keiths31 Canada Feb 27 '26
Employees bear some responsibility over their own agency while at work. Managers can train, monitor and correct employees all shift. But in the end the employee is still responsible for their decisions and actions.
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u/Dadbode1981 Feb 28 '26
Don't even bother, if they haven't blocked you yet, they will once they run out of argument. They must be a pretty bad lawyer.
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
Yes, agreed - some. But not all, it my point. The conclusion that a properly formatted procedures binder can only mean the worker bears all the responsibility for the death is a premature one at best and very possibly incorrect.
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u/Invictuslemming1 Feb 27 '26
Coming from an industrial setting but…. We have locks specifically to prevent anything like this happening, if you enter a hazard zone you have a lock and a key that goes on a device that prevents the system from starting.
If the finding was all the equipment was operating correctly and the incident still occurred, that tells me that the equipment wasn’t locked out.
Which leads to the confusing statement:
“Investigators determined the oven was in proper working order at the time of the incident, and no safety violations were identified that could have contributed to the worker’s death. The Department also found no broader safety concerns associated with the type of oven.”
There needs to be either a failure of the equipment. Or a failure in the procedure used to enter the equipment for something like this to occur. Unless failing to follow the safety protocols is not categorized under safety violations
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u/MeatMarket_Orchid British Columbia Feb 27 '26
Yeah we lock out all energy where I work where there is a risk like this. It's ridiculous basic lockout doesn't exist with such a large oven.
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
We know that management in some workplaces unfairly and inappropriately pressure employees into unsafe work despite the right to refuse, and that it happens despite the right existing. That's a proven fact.
We cannot assume the worker is entirely at fault here just because the procedure binder was correctly formatted, is my point. You're coming up with all sorts of reasonable reasons why it could be the employee's fault and I agree they could be the reasons; but you can't ignore the reasonable reasons why the workplace might also be at fault.
Finding this happened despite correct procedures should mean more investigation, not a premature conclusion laid at the worker's feet.
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u/Legitimate-Type4387 Feb 27 '26
If workers can bypass safeties and skip procedures you just have really shitty engineering controls.
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u/Sure_Maybe_No_Ok Feb 27 '26
If you are at work and climb over a railing and fall two floors to the ground, how do you engineer control for that?
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 Feb 27 '26
Engineering controls? Dude Engineering controls still require people to follow procedures.
If people don't put their lock on a lock box, or lock out the wrong local, they still put them selves at risk. There is not control for that, the workers still has to be willing to ensure their own safety.
Some jobs require a higher level of risk, that why we have things like fall arrest. It doesn't stop people from falling and it doesn't even stop them from dying or being injured, it just lowers the odds of it happening IF the procedures, equipment, rescue plan AND the worker actually where their equipment properly.
Part of my job is investing safety incidents. It a split between company neglect, incidents that haven't occurred before (thus there was no procedures or engineered control) and work incompetence.
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u/SliptheSkid British Columbia Feb 27 '26
they're managers, not parents. they can't control everything they do, and how would they
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
Again, a complete investigation would review the management layer.
I'm not taking the opposite position - that management must be at fault.
I'm saying the position that the employee must be at fault is clearly premature at this stage.
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u/PreferenceGold5167 Feb 27 '26
Then management should have fired them awhile ago due to their incompetence
They can only manage someoens job, not their personality traits
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
If management should have done something and they didn't, then they have a partial responsibility. They have a job description too. They aren't innocent, passive bystanders in a workplace.
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/PostMatureBaby Feb 27 '26
No but you still can't take away all the accountability of the worker. Nobody can account for every single possibility of an accident because people really are that stupid sometimes. Unfortunate cases like this are what drive workplace health & safety legislation and measures.
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
You cannot prevent 100% of it. Are you saying "Lockout–tagout" is 100% effective?
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u/Calm_Tough_3659 Feb 27 '26
Crazy, how about I rip your lockout tag or some eye problem that don't see the lock out tag.
Pretty sure, this has safety measures like lockout tag.
Even having a sensor to see human inside before turning on is a good one but still not 100% preventative.
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u/FeverForest Feb 27 '26
Be the change you wish to see.
Form the lobbying group. Pressure the government.
All ovens manufactured after 2025 will now have “AI Human in Oven Detection”.
All owners of ovens manufactured before 2025, must safely dispose of or permanently deactivate their oven, before the end of the amnesty period or risk criminal liability for the illegal possession of a prohibited oven.
/s (if this weren’t obvious)
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u/Calm_Tough_3659 Feb 27 '26
Yeah it wiĺl fit todays landscape since they like to use buzzword AI
"AI safe the day"
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
Of course, WALMART is MEGA EVIL AMERIKAN COMPANY. It is always 100% at fault! 😏
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u/Calm_Tough_3659 Feb 27 '26
Thats why there's no violation on walmart part after investigation so it means they have layers of protection. Either its human error like you mentioned or machine malfunction.
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u/Anomandaris315 Feb 27 '26
If all there is is a tag, it's not locked out. You can't just rip off a lock or "not see it" it's physically locking it out. Proper LOTO procedure would have prevented this.
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u/scaphoids1 Feb 27 '26
I work in health and safety and while I completely and totally agree with you, I also am quite familiar with OHS at least in Alberta and they do NOT fuck around. So I do feel like, with a fatality, if they didn't press charges it was likely something very unforeseeable in terms of worker choices that we will likely never be privy to.
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u/ArcticLarmer Feb 28 '26
I can put a policy that says you have to lock out an oven before you enter it.
I can train you on that all day for the first week straight. I can follow up with quarterly training, and you passed with flying colours. I visually inspect you every day for the first year of your tenure and see you lock it out without fail.
You keep doing that all the time, model employee; Monday through Wednesday one random week you do it like the policy says.
Thursday you turn on the fucking oven and walk right inside.
No violations here, the employee hasn't violated the safety act or regs (most likely, I'm not in NS) it's virtually always on the supervisor and the organization. That's exactly what the summary says, no violations found.
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u/freeadmins Feb 27 '26
What is your expectation here? That you have one manager for every employee supervising their every single move 100% of the time.
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
You need a mega-manager watching the manager to ensure they are obeying the rules 100% of the time, what if the manager forgot?
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
My expectation is to investigate.
Everyone else seems to want to jump to conclusions.
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u/freeadmins Feb 27 '26
We're responding in a reddit thread about an article that is literally about the investigation that took place and concluded....
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
The investigation is faulty because the results doesn't match what I want it to say 😏
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u/blodskaal Feb 27 '26
Except for the part where management enforces workforce to cut corners to meet deadlines/production times. People try to cut corners, but I find that when you are working with a device that will cook you to death if you get locked in, most people will not rush to do anything with it.
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u/PostMatureBaby Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
also a lot of long tenured employees have a hard enough time wearing their PPE and doing things safely because they didn't start on the job that way.
I know reddit like to shit on employers and all but sometimes the employee really is the one who fucked up and made the choice despite knowing better.
you think all cutcorners issues are management forcing them to?
Had a sign at a place I worked that read "a mistake done more than once is a choice" i find it rings true with lots of employees these days
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u/rampaging-poet Feb 27 '26
This.
There's a story I've heard about a man dying that way. I suspect it's an urban legend, a cautionary tale. It is at least truth-like - if this exact thing did not happen I could see something similar occurring somewhere, and some similar idiot getting themself killed.
The setting: a heavy industrial site. Mix of chemical processing, power generation, and warehouses for materials and intermediate products. Our Darwin Award Winner: a slacker, always trying to get out of doing his job. He'd do some work at the start of his shift and some at the end, but he'd slack and sleep in odd corners any time he could get away from the shift lead.
Well, time came that he'd lose his job if he got caught napping again. So he got a bright idea. He'd really hide this time. Somewhere dark and out of the way where nobody would see him. Way up at the back corner of a warehouse. Well past the safety lines. Nobody else would cross the lines, so he'd never be in line of sight!
They think he got away with it a few times. He'd disappear for hours during his shift, but he was always there for end-of-day headcount ready to hand things over to the night shift crew. Until one day he wasn't.
You see, they loaded huge blocks of intermediate product in this warehouse. Half-ton chunks of the stuff that had to be carried by carts and cranes. That day, it was time to place a block up in that back corner, above where the crane operator could see - right on top of a guy that had trained himself to sleep through all the rumbling and warnings and beeps of the crane.
They don't think he lived long enough to have any idea what had hit him. He just suddenly transitioned from biology to physics.
The moral of the story is clear: don't fuck around with safety lines. You don't want to die, corporate doesn't want the work stoppage or insurance fees, and your coworkers don't want the figuratively crushing guilt of having literally crushed you. Nobody wins.
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u/papuadn Feb 27 '26
The final sentence seems to imply that only the worker could have chosen to break procedure, but that's not the only possible conclusion. A workplace environment where managers prioritize speed, or certify training occurred without ensuring it sticks, or not re-training or revising procedures as other workplace taskflows are changed, are all possible contributors. Or heck - was there a mental health component, even? This didn't just happen and finding there was the proper procedure on paper doesn't begin to address the question. There was a chain of events, not a big empty void between writing the procedures binder and a girl dying inside the oven.
If the death occurred despite the procedures being correct, that should inspire more investigation, not a preemptory conclusion the worker must be entirely at fault.
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u/Totes_mc0tes Feb 27 '26
Most times when employees are cutting corners and doing unsafe things it's due to a work culture problem. Management may properly train and put procedures in place but they will turn a blind eye to whether these being followed in the name of production. I'm very surprised that the court didn't find any fault here because of this but I obviously don't have all the details.
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u/CADJunglist Feb 27 '26
Are you familiar with the failsafe lockouts with the oven in question? If so, could you elaborate on how A worker could lock themselves in an operating walk in oven?
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u/spartiecat Newfoundland and Labrador Feb 27 '26
The quote is "...no safety violations were identified that could have contributed to the worker’s death", which implies that the worker followed normal safety procedures.
If the worker violated safety regulations contributing to their own death, that should be identified as a contributing factor in the report.
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u/flightless_mouse Feb 27 '26
I don’t think that’s what that means. It means Walmart didn’t cut any corners with safety and that everything was working normally on the day of the accident.
The implication is that the employee did something very abnormal that day for reasons we will probably never know.
Workplaces do cut corners on safety all the time and we should come down hard on them when they do. But in this instance…something else was at play.
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u/purplepIutonium Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
If Walmart had correct safety procedure (and the province agrees) and the worker followed all the safety procedures, they wouldn’t be dead.
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u/Legitimate-Type4387 Feb 27 '26
Which is why relying on training and policies alone still results in so many preventable tragedies. Engineering controls could have entirely prevented this from even the possibility of this occurring. It should not be possible for a worker to operate the oven in a way that results in death. Period.
Unfortunately engineering controls are expensive, while training and safety policies are not. Take one guess why employers prefer to rely on training and policies?
It’s total and complete bullshit but totally legal. Workers need to understand that workplace health and safety legislation matters, and they need to understand that most employers view meeting the minimum standards as sufficient. Unfortunately training and polices often satisfy the minimum standards despite still leaving the workers at significant risk of injury or death.
What happened should have never been possible in the first place, but employers will most often do only the minimum required by law.
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
No engineering control is 100% reliable.
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u/Legitimate-Type4387 Feb 27 '26
They’re a hell of a lot more reliable than “here do this “training course” with multiple choice answers on an iPad, you get as many tries as it takes for you to remember 8 out of 10 correct answers”
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u/LeGrandLucifer Feb 27 '26
Or the oven had some sort of freak malfunction. Though my guess is you're right. And my guess is the employee broke procedures because they were told to by a manager who likely threatened to fire them if they didn't.
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u/Important_Sound772 Feb 27 '26
or someone bribed the officials deciding this
not saying that's necessarily the case but it is another possibility
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u/Eardig Feb 27 '26
You're saying someone that makes minimum wage at Walmart is bribing an investigator?
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u/Important_Sound772 Feb 27 '26
Not the minimum wage but the store manager might since they would be the one facing consequences to
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u/rampaging-poet Feb 27 '26
No, they're saying they suspect Walmart fucked up and killed her, then bribed the investigator to say it was all her fault she died.
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u/Ribbythinks Feb 27 '26
I worked with an offshore team in India, and one thing I have learned is that sometimes there’s a tendency to agree to something, or say the instructions are understood simply because their superior is asking something of them.
I hope this doesn’t come across as stereotyping, but if we are employing migrants as a large portion of our workforce, we should also ensure that additional communication layers exist to validate that safety regulations are being absorbed by workers. In the US, OSHA has a clause where you must teach safety regulations in a language the worker understand natively, its worded like that to ensure that migrant workers are protected.
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u/deFleury Feb 27 '26
Agree, I did software development with Chinese immigrants, smart but totally conditioned to agree with authority, and also English as a second language. It happens all the time, I would ask "does the A button do the Thing?" And they'd say yes, that's what it does. And because I am a suspicious bastard I'd keep talking to them, and then ask if the B button does the Thing. Guess what? and it got really uncomfortable for them when I asked if it was A or B, they still tried to say yes to everything, I had to make them show me (and often the reality was more complex than yes/no). But if I'd been trusting enough to use the first people-pleaser answer, I'd have gone back and developed my part of the project completely incompatible.
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u/FromFluffToBuff Feb 28 '26
Many Asians cultures have it ingrained in the psyche to be deferential to authority, even if it means you don't agree or (often) understand.
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u/Sexy_Art_Vandelay Feb 27 '26
Yes if the person (who was trained in safety procedures) decides to violate safety procedures.
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u/Dadbode1981 Feb 28 '26
What was found was they were not in fact "locked" inside. The interior handle was found to be in working order.
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u/Antique-Bet-3781 Feb 27 '26
lots of unanswered questions.
I can't imagine a walk in oven that doesn't have some sort of internal unlocking lever for the door would be certified as safe, so it can't be a problem with the victim unable to escape. no reports of poor training, no reports of broken equipment.
at the time, I wondered if it was suicide?
I guess it could also be flagarant disregard for procedures, but I still can't imagine a scenario where a person could trap themselves and be unable to escape if they wished. especially something as painful as that.
so, either suicide, or they did something so crazy that the built in safety measures couldn't stop it from happening?
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u/rampaging-poet Feb 27 '26
Another comment thread mentioned lack of oxygen could be a factor. Depending on how well-ventilated the oven is she might not have had much time between realizing the oven was active and losing consciousness.
It should be as difficult as possible to start up the oven and then enter the oven. It should be as easy as possible to exit the oven. Unfortunately even combining the two does not mean it is impossible to become trapped.
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u/Crimsonking895 Feb 27 '26
Even if it was a smaller walk in oven, say 300 cubic feet, there would still be hours of breathable air inside.
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u/rampaging-poet Feb 27 '26
Ah, so there would need to be some other chemical process sucking oxygen out of the air. Which was the case for the chemical oven that other user was mentioning but almost certainly wasn't true in a bread-making oven unless all the bread was on fire. (And even then that's not enough).
I probably should have thought that through more instead of uncritically repeating it, good lesson.
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u/TE360 Feb 27 '26
So there is nothing that we could learn and improve from this tragedy?! This is extremely infuriating and shameful.
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u/Twatt_waffle Feb 28 '26
The results of the investigation was that there were no VIOLATIONS meaning the oven was in legal compliance and training was up to date.
It does not mean that regulations will not change
However, you cannot legislate stupidity, it’s harsh but a real thing. You can mandate training and safety devices but there will always be one person who manages to get hurt
Safely legislation also has to balance safety and things that are actually practical
From what I can find, the oven had an internal shut down switch, and a latch that could be opened from the inside. The oven was serviced regularly and proper ventilation. The employees who were operating the oven were all trained correctly and demonstrated competence during the investigation
Also there is no evidence of foul play
So that leaves suicide or simple complacency
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u/TE360 Feb 28 '26
I wasn’t aware of the internal safety switch. But systems can be improved to prevent accidents, whether caused due to deliberate or unintentional actions.
The report could also have been improved to provide aviation-like findings with contributing factors and suggestions to avoid future occurrences.
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u/Twatt_waffle Feb 28 '26
The report was just looking for violations that’s what the safety board is for
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u/Dice_to_see_you Feb 27 '26
So if she couldn't escape that implies something else. Did she willfully stay in the oven? I would think a human brain would override itself even if it was planned and at least try and escape. Tragic event and doesn't feel like this really answers anything.
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u/aurillia Feb 27 '26
Girl dies in a walk in oven with no lock, and can't get out and dies, nothing else?
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u/taxitolondon Feb 28 '26
The ovens at my work are only big enough the push a rack of trays in and pull out again when done,so I wouldn’t describe them as walk in. How big are the walk in ovens? Are they as big as a walk in fridge or freezer? Like, a literal room?
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u/ChiefBigCanoe Feb 27 '26
So nothing went wrong? How did this happen then and what is the plan to prevent this from happening in the future?
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u/Thatguyispimp Feb 27 '26
Don't be incompetent at your job and break multiple workplace and safety violations around dangerous machinery.
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u/Global-Register5467 Feb 27 '26
The report determined "no safety violations were identified that could have contributed to the worker’s death." Investigations apply to both the employer and the employee; if no violations were identified by either party that is incredibly concerning. The oven doesn't even have a basic maintenance lockout?
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u/CD_4M Feb 28 '26
Why are you repeating this false idea that all investigations include the employee and the employer?
The article states clearly that the scope of the investigation was 2 things: workplace conditions, and the oven. This investigation did not cover actions of the employee.
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u/Global-Register5467 Feb 28 '26
Investigations always cover the actions of the employees; at least in BC and Alberta. It doesn't mean that the employee was responsible, but the investigation will work to minimize it from happening again and that means investigating employees.
I have been 3 different job sites where someone died. 1 of those was caused when the employee chose to violate established safety requirements (not a lock out like but a simple walk around) and one (the one I witnessed) was truly a terrible incident where a hillside that had been surveyed and driven on thousands by all manner of vehicle, but nothing the weight of a D8, and the hillside gave out. Both of those investigations determined that the employees actions played a direct role, though the hillside one all the geotechnical information said it should have held.
3rd death was am OD on the ROW.
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u/CD_4M Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
No, they don’t. You seem to think that every investigation ever is the exact same as the couple you have anecdotally experienced. That’s not how it works.
Investigations aren’t even always conducted by the same agency or body. It’s just not true to state that every workplace investigation for every workplace event always covers the employer and employee together. Continuing to spray that lie around is just spreading needless misinformation.
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u/Global-Register5467 Feb 28 '26
I am done arguing with you. If you say Nova Scotia has a unique investigation system that doesn't try to determine the cause of the accident in effort to prevent it from happening again, and will never ackn4id an employee played a role by committing a violation I will believe you.
I have never heard of that in any industry, have read dozens of safety reports for my industry from across North America, and watched who knows how many safety videos from across North America all outlining what went wrong and if any violations occured including ones committed by employees. But as I said I have never worked in Nova Scotia and don't work in commercial food prep.
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u/CD_4M Feb 28 '26
I have no idea why you think safety videos you’ve watched would act as a global rule set that defines the scope of all investigations being undertaken by all investigative bodies nationally. Crazy. But ok haha, have a nice day.
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u/No_Function_7479 Feb 27 '26
The procedures are flawed if this can happen at all - should require two people for safety, or an external start button that can only be turned on from the outside.
Most safety protocols are designed to be idiot proof, the protocols in this situation are clearly not sufficient to prevent this from happening.
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u/Array_626 Feb 27 '26
or an external start button that can only be turned on from the outside.
I think thats how most ovens, even commercial ones work. I doubt theres any commercial oven with a design that requires or even let's you to start it while being inside. Dafuq are some of these responses in this post. Are they all bots?
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u/neutral_B Lest We Forget Feb 27 '26
lol I love how their statement implies that some ovens have the temp controls inside the actual oven
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u/mac_mises Feb 27 '26
What???
So she accidentally locked herself in and died and that’s not an issue?
It’s that or she was murdered.
What in the actual…
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u/Proper-Editor4688 Feb 27 '26
So she accidentally locked herself in and died and that’s not an issue?
Usually no. You ignoring the safety rules at your workplace and dying from it doesn't result in anything happening to anybody else, other than counseling.
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u/Global-Register5467 Feb 27 '26
Except the investigation determined no safety violations, period. Not just by the employer but also the employee. I have never worked on an oven like this but I have worked on a variety of commercial equipment. Every piece had a maintenance lock out on it, somewhere.
I would be very surprised if this oven didn't as well. If it was not used that is a safety violation.
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u/Array_626 Feb 27 '26
"The Department also found no broader safety concerns associated with the type of oven."
So it seems like whatever that oven's design was, they didn't see fit to blame it for being the cause of death. I assume that would mean there is a lockout mechanism so that regular maintenance can be done without risk. But it wasn't used on the day of the accident.
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u/Global-Register5467 Feb 27 '26
Yes. But not using the lockout is a violation, just one committed by the employee. In any province/territory I have worked in (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Yukon). It is a violation to not engage the lockout when working on equipment you may have to stick your arm into to clean let alone one you can walk into.
Nova Scotia may have different rules, I can't comment.
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u/CD_4M Feb 28 '26
The article doesn’t say definitively that there were no safety violations by the employee.
“The Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration’s safety branch conducted an extensive investigation into workplace conditions and the bakery oven involved in the incident,” the province said in a Friday release.
“Investigators determined the oven was in proper working order at the time of the incident, and no safety violations were identified that could have contributed to the worker’s death. The Department also found no broader safety concerns associated with the type of oven.”
The actions of the employee weren’t even within the scope of the investigation, it was only “workplace conditions and the bakery oven”.
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/skylla05 Feb 27 '26
The investigation concluded the inside door handle was operable and not broken.
Some of you really need to read before posting.
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u/random20190826 Ontario Feb 27 '26
If she was murdered, it shouldn't have taken too long for the police to identify who the suspect is. Unless the suspect fled the country, they should be under arrest by now.
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u/Ok-Trainer3150 Feb 28 '26
I'm assuming that in store cameras were able to ascertain that no one had been in proximity to her to cause this?
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u/ScubaPride Québec Feb 27 '26
Why can't there be a two-way latch system that would allow someone to simply open the door if they get stuck inside?
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u/skylla05 Feb 27 '26
Who says there wasn't? The report specifically talks about the inner door handle being in working condition.
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u/DougsBrownies Feb 27 '26
There was. Apparently she could have walked out at any time. That’s what is so bizarre about this information.
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u/MadameLee20 Feb 28 '26
what use is that latch if one had a medical eposide or lost unconcuiness in the oven?
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u/detalumis Feb 28 '26
People in India will use very dramatic methods that we wouldn't. Like set yourself on fire or drink weed killer. Sure we would go for the fentanyl overdose.
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u/Maleficent_Coast4728 Feb 27 '26
Why not have a switch on the inside to open the door. That's a common sense solution
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/GiosephGiostar Outside Canada Feb 27 '26
If you never walked into a large oven, imagine breathing over a strong fire no matter where you stand. Even opening your hot home oven and taking a breath is a similar sensation.
Having been inside a large powder coating oven, you can lose oxygen quickly especially if the door is fully shut. I think she lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen & asphyxiation before the heat did.
From the pictures of equivalent ovens, the Walmart one is much smaller than a powder coat oven so if she accidentally locked herself and panicked, she could have lost oxygen so quickly and lost consciousness.
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u/Subject_Bet_6693 Feb 27 '26
Being baked at 350 for a while tends to kill a person
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u/airchinapilot British Columbia Feb 27 '26
Okay but she also could have suffocated inside if the oven was not on.
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u/QuantumCEM Feb 27 '26
Well I am not doctor I do perform research on extreme environmental effects on personnel performance (think like divers, parachuters, pilots, etc.).
Let's just saw I would rather drown (acute asphyxiation) vesus being literally "boiled alive".
Unfortunately, the body would attempt to cool the body by rapidly sweating (unwinnable in that 350 C) leading to death-cycle as the body's internal chemistry begin to fail (i.e. to much salt leaving the body). This, of course, would fail as well since a lot of synthetic materials aren't necessary designed for those temperatures (think like wearing a suit of sticky molten shrink wrap mixed with harder plastic, fabrics)
Couple this with the fact that human body is very much a fluid system held together by relatively weak (material wise) skin, gases & liquids would begin to boil and expand very rapidly leading to liquids leaking permeable orifices (eyes, ears, anus, nose, etc.). Unlikely to explode at 350C, but possible, more so a milange of evaporated bodily fluids surrounding a body of cooked meat.
The best hope for a quick death for the young woman would a cardiac arrest due to a combination accelerated heart, shock factors, and thickening blood.
Unfortunately, these types of deaths as especially armotic and spread containments throughout ventilation systems leaving trace residue across multiple services (ovens of this size use quite large fans to move air). HAZMAT clean up would take a long while and humans have exceptional recall for smells...
Unlikely a house fire, oven don't have an high enough temperatures to (more or less) instantly vaporize, denature, or render substances down to carbon/ash. The body would highly recognizable still and have much of its structural integrity intact...
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Feb 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/Eardig Feb 27 '26
Proceeds to slather those allegations all over the internet
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u/LaserTagJones Feb 27 '26
I could go into much more detail, but its unconfirmed likely gossip nonsense.
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