*Warning: this story contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers*
Blayne McKay of Prince Albert was working for Flatlander Scaffolding at the Island Falls SaskPower Hydroelectric Station, about 20 minutes away from Sandy Bay on May 9, 2022. At 11:30 in the morning, he was told to take some measurements for a future job and asked his coworker a few questions; his coworker then went to get him some answers.
Once McKay’s coworker left, he began taking the measurements starting lengthways to see how long the scaffold would be, then he put his tape measurer in the air to see what kind of scaffold legs would be needed.
When McKay put his tape measurer in the air, the transformer he was working near arced, sending 110,000 volts of electricity through his body.
“I burst into flames, and then it released me, and I was still on the ground. My coworker found some rainwater and started putting me out, and then remembered there was a fire hose inside the door; he ran in there and turned it on as low as it could go, and then put me out the rest of the way and ran for help,” explained McKay.
From the site, McKay was taken to Sandy Bay for medical help.
“I thought I was going to die. One of the rescuers had a phone on him, and I asked him to call my wife Jackie. I talked to her for a few minutes and told her, ’I don’t think I’m ever going to come home,’” said McKay.
After receiving care in Sandy Bay for a few hours, McKay was put into an induced coma at around 3:30 and flown to Edmonton to receive care at a specialized burn unit.
(Video of McKay in the hospital. Submitted by Blayne McKay)
He was in a coma for two months at the burn unit and stayed for another month once he became conscious again. From the burn unit, he was transferred to St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon for a month and spent one more month at City Hospital.
“Then I got out, and I ended up getting 65% of my body skin grafted; I ended up getting my finger amputated; I’m blind in my left eye; I’m missing chucks of my body all over,” McKay said. “I had to relearn how to walk and do everything; my right arm didn’t work for over a year.”
(Images of McKay’s body after the incident. Submitted by Blayne McKay)
He said the recovery process has been tough for him, and at the beginning he didn’t think he’d get to where he is now, but he kept pushing and trying his hardest every day.
“I go to physio five days a week, and I was doing hand therapy for four days a week; I did that for almost two years, and I’ve been to Edmonton a bunch of times to go to the Glenrose Peripheral Nerve Clinic,” he said.
SaskPower is currently in court facing the biggest Occupational Health and Safety fine that Saskatchewan has seen. The province is pushing for a $500,000 fine with a $250,000 surcharge, none of which will go to McKay.
The reason McKay won’t see any money from his incident is because he is receiving workers’ compensation. WCB was established in the province in 1911, and under the “historic compromise,” also known as the Meredith Principles, people receiving workers’ compensation surrender their right to sue employers if they are injured at work.
“I’ve talked to hundreds of lawyers, and as soon as I mention that I’m on WCB, they say, ‘You can’t sue them; you can’t get anything,’ and they all tell you that you don’t get any of the money from the fines,” said McKay.
Through workers’ compensation, McKay is only making a third of what he previously made and is losing out on money every day because he can’t work.
McKay wasn’t in contact with anyone from SaskPower after the incident until recently; he stated that someone reached out, and he now has a meeting scheduled with them in the coming weeks.
SaskPower is set to be sentenced on October 31 at Prince Albert Provincial Court.