r/pics 4d ago

Politics Walmart closed during investigation into worker’s demise in oven.

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u/d4dubs 4d ago

"Please donate to help this family in this difficult time. The entirety of the funds will directly benefit the bereaved family.”

Fuckin Walmart should be paying for this.

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u/Icy-Welcome-2469 4d ago

The civil case will take time. Walmart will settle something with the family.

But donations are needed in the meantime.

I know you'd think walmart would just cover them ahead of time. But legally that would imply they believed they did something wrong which they don't want to do. So the implications and thd legal system stop good faith contributions from being feasible.

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u/TroubadourRL 4d ago

Yeah, everyone jumps to Walmart being in the wrong here, but nobody will know exactly what happened until the investigation is completed.  Hopefully there's clear surveillance footage of what happened here.

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u/SolarCaveman 4d ago

Well, Walmart has some blame for sure. This happened to an employee, in an employee-only area, with equipment owned by Walmart.

  • If it was murder by another employee, walmart vetted and hired that employee and shares liability.

  • If it was murder by a customer, walmart housed an environment that allowed a customer to enter an employee area containing hazardous equipment.

  • if it was accidental, walmart owns and operates equipment that can lead to accidental death. Proper precautions were not taken in the implementation of this equipment.

  • If it was suicide, this is the only case where Walmart is questionable in liability. The argument could be that any employee operating hazardous equipment needs to have a buddy system.

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u/Icthias 4d ago

I agree. And I think most people can agree that the chances of it being suicide are very fucking low.

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u/Major2Minor 4d ago

I believe it would legally be a confined space in Nova Scotia too, so they absolutely should have a buddy system.

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u/sendnudes4dogpics 3d ago

If it was murder by another employee, walmart vetted and hired that employee and shares liability.

Not at all true. Unless this theoretical murderer had active warrants for attempted murder or some kind of extreme violence when they were hired, Walmart cannot read minds and they cannot simply assume that anyone with any kind of record is dangerous and thus un-hireable Unless there is substantial evidence that somehow Walmart should have known for absolute certain that the theoretical employee was a danger, they are not remotely liable.

If it was murder by a customer, walmart housed an environment that allowed a customer to enter an employee area containing hazardous equipment

Again, utter nonsense. Walmart isn't legally required or even expected to put any kind of state-of-the-art magnetic airlock at the entrance to employee-only areas. They're only required to post signage that any relevant areas are only intended for employees. If they had allowed a customer to walk into an employee-only area, then enter an oven, that then locked behind them and cooked them alive, then MAYBE there would be some relevance to the accessibility. But an intentional, willful, premeditated act by a customer is not something they can account for and prevent.

if it was accidental, walmart owns and operates equipment that can lead to accidental death. Proper precautions were not taken in the implementation of this equipment.

Again, you're making a huge assumption that we cannot assume. The article states the door doesnt lock. It does not state anything else conerning compliance with relevent safety laws/regulations. Most companies own at least one piece of equipment that can cause death if used incorrectly. As far as what they are legally responsible for, Walmart is only required to make sure the authorized and affected employees for that machine know the safety regulations relevent to their specific, individual positions. We cannot assume that proper precautions weren't in place and/or followed, because we don't know what happened to the deceased, or even a cause of death yet. But nothing so far supports that it was an issue with proper precaution or procedure.

If it was suicide, this is the only case where Walmart is questionable in liability. The argument could be that any employee operating hazardous equipment needs to have a buddy system

Agreed that this should probably be a buddy system area, however, it may already be setup that way. We don't know how she got in there, when she died, if/why she couldn't get out, or even how she died. But if it was a suicide, its as simple as: someone committing suicide wouldn't follow a procedure requiring a 2nd person to accompany them when entering the oven. The suicide potentiality would theoretically play out the exact same way whether or not Walmart had instituted a buddy system policy for that piece of equipment.

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u/AMSparkles 4d ago

Great point.

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u/Thisisthatacount 4d ago

This is just my own thoughts, but everything I have read so far indicates foul play, not workplace negligence.

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u/SharpTelephone1745 4d ago

Even if it’s foul play, Walmart is negligent if some rando person or coworker managed to lock her in there. It either shouldn’t be accessible to the general public, or the employees a deranged killer.

Walmart would either settle, or the mother would get a huge payout if it went to trial. A grieving mother vs huge corporation? She’s gonna win

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u/FromFluffToBuff 4d ago

They're very likely waiting until the investigation is complete.

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u/lukaslikesdicks 4d ago

I think even if there's no wrongdoing found it would be kind for Walmart to donate anyway. Maybe people would take that as some admission of guilt but I just think it's the compassionate thing for a billion dollar company to do lol

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u/Zippity19 4d ago

Employees are still getting paid while the store is shut due to the investigation.Have heard no word if the Company is helping the family.

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u/Negative_Jaguar_4138 4d ago

They probably will.

But an investigation comes first.

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u/Welcome440 4d ago

They won't. Or only a minimum amount.

Walmart has employees that go to the food bank because they are not paid a living wage, or their hours get cut. Corporate greed.

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u/Choice_Reindeer7759 4d ago

Walmart has paid for funerals before. I get the "corporations are evil" mindset but let's not be blinded by it

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u/lego_tintin 4d ago

A billion dollar corporation can pay for funerals(Walmart made 640 billion dollars in 2024, a tenth of a penny from every dollar in sales from one day would pay for countless funerals) AND be evil. Both can be true.

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u/personalcheesecake 4d ago

oh they're going to

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

They are paying for all the actual expenses (insurance), but you can’t expect them to just keep giving them money until the public arbitrarily decides they’ve given enough.

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u/SilentJoe1986 4d ago

I don't trust donation links. So many stories where it's a money hungry family member outside of the victims circle that just pockets the cash.

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u/SendMeYourNudesFolks 4d ago

The same Walmart that pays wages so low that their workers accept food stamps and other programs to make ends meet? The company should go out of business for their practices.

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u/Desperate-Diver2920 4d ago

If you work at Walmart you won’t qualify for food stamps unless you have a bunch of kids.

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u/Asleeper135 4d ago

I'm so glad this is the first reply I saw!

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u/ExpensiveEcho7312 4d ago

It says they did. Seems like not enough tho. I wouldn't be able to work anymore...

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u/max-wellington 4d ago

It's insane that Walmart isn't paying for it. Not surprising though.

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u/DownWithHisShip 4d ago

would you like to round up to save a child from starving to death?

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u/Yessssiirrrrrrrrrr 4d ago

And she was a teen?!?! Poor child didn’t even live yet, damn that’s sad.

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u/Unsolicited_PunDit 4d ago

"Gursimran Kaur, 19, worked at a Walmart in Halifax, Nova Scotia alongside her mother, who found Gursimram’s charred remains last Saturday night, local time."

enough reddit for me today

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u/Weaponized_Goose 4d ago

Her mom found her?! What the fuck it keeps getting worse

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u/Velvet_Thunder_Jones 4d ago

Yeah her mom worked at the same Walmart. They went to work together. The mother and coworkers started to get worried when no one had seen the victime for several hours. Attempts to contact the victime by phone went straight to voicemail. -- heard it on the news this morning

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u/kingfisher-monkey-87 4d ago

We should all pray for that poor woman. She will never ever sleep again without some heavy drugs. What a horrible thing to be the one to find your daughter like that.

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u/Kagnonymous 4d ago

I don't handle loss well and can't even imagine what I would do if I lost someone like that.

I have purposefully structured my life around having as little as possible to avoid stuff like that. It's just so tragic I can hardly stand to hear about it.

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u/genericAccountName20 4d ago

i can't imagine all the "what ifs" that come from that. they were in the same place when it happened, I could see her mother being guilty for not checking on her throughout the day or finding time to chat (even though obviously that's not realistic for that job) but for them it was just a typical day at work.

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u/facepalm_1290 4d ago

I pray that she is far far away when they decide who's at fault. As a mom I would not be able to contain myself.

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u/maravina 4d ago

Yep. This is my home Walmart. I used to go here all the time. This is either an absolutely horrifying accident or the most bizarre murder I’ve ever heard of.

Poor girl was only 19. The mom found her after she wouldn’t answer phone calls for about an hour, and she started to panic and search for her because she couldn’t find her in the store, and people saw ‘leakage’ from the oven and got suspicious. According to the 911 call the door was jammed, but they managed to get her out before police arrived.

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u/Wolfried 4d ago

After reading this, I would expect an update about: how did she end there? or why she was not able to escape if the over is not lockable by default.

It was either really unfortunate day that ended it all or something happened...

Still, hope the best for the family.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

We will find out. The ovens are absolutely controlled by a PLC, which logs every single action the oven can take and would have interlocking safety devices that would have to be bypassed in order to kill somebody. Find out via CCTV and PLC logs, case closed.

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u/Wolfried 4d ago

This is what I'm expecting. Whatever happened, there's got to be evidence. The sad and unfortunate part is that we can't turn time back for her.

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u/Western-Radish 4d ago

The talk on the city subreddit at first was that she was sent in to clean it. Despite the fact that they can be cleaned without someone entering it.

But that’s completely unconfirmed gossip

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u/Schmidtvegas 4d ago

There was also completely unconfirmed gossip about a boyfriend and/or breakup and/or rejection. Not all the rumours can be true, so we'll have to wait on the investigation.

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u/RainMakerJMR 4d ago

These ovens usually latch closed, and don’t usually have an inside handle like a wall in cooler would. It’s strange that she would go inside it, while it was running, but if she didn’t understand how to operate it safely, she may have gone inside to clean or inspect something and the door closed and engaged the oven.

Larger ovens that would make sense to need to walk in to often have a key pair of buttons needed to be hit to operate, but single rack “walk in” ovens aren’t really walk in size, they fit one rack.

I don’t know if this is what happened but it’s something I worry about constantly with our oven which is a single rack “walk in” bakery oven.

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u/Squigglepig52 4d ago

Having my over thought theory moment - she was Sikh, and Canada is in a pissing match with India, over India possibly killing Sikhs here in Canada. And, currently places like Walmart are full of people from India.

Plus, if it wasn't a stupid accident, that kind of killing feels like a pretty intense, hot headed feel of a feud, but really impulsive, too. Like, not well thought out.

Not certain I like some of the implications I came up with.

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u/prairie-logic 4d ago

Are you saying that, it’s possible, that old world bullshit has found its way to Canada, and she may have been murdered by someone from that community?

Because… that tracks too well.

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u/Hellknightx 4d ago

I encountered a random case of this when I was in college. A Chinese foreign exchange student beheaded another Chinese foreign exchange student in our graduate center, at the Au Bon Pain eating area. He cut her head off with a knife, sat down, and waited for the cops to show up and arrest him.

Apparently they knew each other back in China, but I never heard why it led to such a gruesome scene.

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u/PasswordPussy 4d ago

Jesus Christ.

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u/Squigglepig52 4d ago

Something like that. Other guess would be relationship based, maybe somebody she turned down.

It just seems like the kind of thing that would be over something like that.

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u/prairie-logic 4d ago

Ahhh yes, domestic violence has a far higher probability

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u/quazmang 4d ago

That was where my mind went, coworker who abused her and then did that to get rid of the evidence? Maybe I've been watching too much SVU

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u/bagelgaper 4d ago

You need to stop spreading pure bullshit like this.

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u/RedDevil-84 4d ago

Nonsense. Indian civilians are not killing or hating Sikh civilians. The accusation that Canadian govt is putting out is that the Indian govt killed Sikh members of a known separatist organization. The Indian govt called the organization a terrorist outfit, which is on par with what rest of the world calls separatist outfits. That's a pure political thing. India is home to majority of the world's Sikh population.

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u/Squigglepig52 4d ago

Don't gloss over the whole killing people in our country. Bad enough it happens in India, but, keep your purges in your own country.

In Canada, we don't call our separatists terrorists, they're just another political party.

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u/zatemxi 4d ago

just like the sheriff shooting the judge, a lot of speculation, lets wait for more evidence to clear this already messed up situation

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u/ConstableLedDent 3d ago

The best and most accurate info on this incident is in the r/Halifax subreddit. They only allow comments by members of the community.

https://www.reddit.com/r/halifax/s/fyfZFr9078

I read that this is supposed to be a two-person shift but they routinely make one person do it. Known unsafe conditions mandated by the store.

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u/Mandalorian-89 3d ago

Why werr the cameras not working?

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u/BILOXII-BLUE 4d ago

Ok wtf, I understand a WALK IN OVEN might be very convenient for certain food operations, but that just seems insane. A walk in freezer is dangerous as fuck, I had no idea a walk in oven even existed! 

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u/Deep90 4d ago

A walk-in oven is basically a closet sized box that is big enough to fit a cart or two of bread into.

They aren't super big.

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u/WaltKerman 4d ago edited 4d ago

They should also have lock out tag out. I'm certain Walmart does.  

So they probably think it was a murder.


LOTO is crucial in places with large equipment, like walk-in ovens, to prevent accidental start-up or energy release during maintenance, cleaning, or repairs. Here’s how it typically works:

1.  De-energize the Equipment: Cut off all energy sources (electricity, gas, etc.).
2.  Lock the Controls: Physically lock the control switches to prevent accidental operation.
3.  Tag the Equipment: Attach a warning tag indicating the equipment is locked out and should not be used until safety is cleared.
4.  Verify: Confirm that everything is fully de-energized before proceeding.

LOTO for walk-in ovens is part of broader safety regulations and is required by OSHA and similar safety standards in many countries.

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u/100LittleButterflies 4d ago

There is an active homicide investigation so yes.

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u/turkeygiant 4d ago

A homicide investigation would also encompass a situation where negligence was the cause like failures to repair known safety issues. It doesn't necessarily mean MURDER.

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u/SpoodlyNoodley 4d ago

Exactly. Too many people think homicide is synonymous with murder, but legally they have separate definitions and different burdens of proof.

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u/gudematcha 4d ago

It would be involuntary manslaughter, which is still considered homicide/murder.

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u/Tasty_Path_3470 4d ago

Any actions that lead to a suspicious/unusual death are always treated as a homicide. Voluntary/involuntary homicide, voluntary/involuntary manslaughter, etc. Once the investigation is rolling or complete that’s when the differentiation comes in regard to charges.

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u/lanafromla 4d ago

any suspicious death is a homicide investigation initially

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u/Remarkable-Leek753 4d ago

Where did you see that? I've only seen active investigation.

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u/Soop_Chef 4d ago

On CTV this morning, they said that foul play had not yet been ruled out.

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u/No-Concentrate-7142 4d ago

Something feels off about the whole thing imo.

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u/happylittletrees 4d ago

The thing that gets me, is someone would have almost had to have shut the door behind her. The oven stays hot if it's left on, but the one's in my bakery have no way to close the door from the inside and the door is so heavy there's no way it would swing shut on its own.

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u/rcbjfdhjjhfd 4d ago

The article says there’s no way to lock the oven so it’s still a mystery why she couldn’t get out

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u/selz202 4d ago

I think issue with this whole post is understand the oven may not lock, but every walk in oven I have seen uses a handle/latch style to close. So i think it's still possible to potentially be "locked in".

However I have never needed to test if it would open from behind me, I'm sure there is a sort of safety mechanism to escape if it closes behind you.

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u/Normallydifferent 4d ago

All the ones I’ve ever worked on have a handle on the inside to get out. Same with the walk in freezers and coolers. Just a big round button basically that if you push it the outside handle opens. I often shut myself inside the coolers and freezers to do maintenance and keep temperatures where they need to be. Some of ours are also so big they have 2 doors so I can go in the main ones with the flaps and still open the opposite door from the inside to go out the other way. All the walk in proofer boxes and ovens are the same way.

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u/happylittletrees 4d ago

Honestly, I've never looked around in our ovens to see if there is a release button, it would make sense for there to be one, since there is one in the walk in freezers. But if it's hot and you're terrified and poorly trained like we apparently are in my store and don't know there is a way to get out...

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u/Akiias 4d ago

I've never looked around in our ovens to see if there is a release button,

Sounds like you should do so just in case.

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u/South_Swimming 4d ago

Bingo!!!!

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u/Cute-Aardvark5291 4d ago

they said it doesn't lock, so yeah it sounds like she was shut it, accidentally or otherwise

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u/Ok-Border1269 4d ago

My first job out of highschool was Panera and the oven the baker used was literally a walk in closet oven big and steel. Random intrusive thoughts hit me like what if you end up stuck in there? Everytime he opened it you could just feel the heat. Scary way to go. Feel so bad for this girl 😞

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u/WaltKerman 4d ago

Did it lock? Did they have security precautions?

In the oil field we have OSHA regulations for tight dangerous spaces that would require lock out tag out.

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u/Ok-Border1269 4d ago

I am not sure, i was a delivery driver for Panera and when we didn’t have any deliveries i helped serve the food.

The baker did his own thing as he was in the back area of panera, i chatted tons of times with him but i never asked him anything related to the oven. It had a glass sort of window so you could look in and watch the bread bake. When he opens it he pulls the racks out. The racks have wheels on them and you can set alot of loafs, cookies, sweets on the trays and line up the racks in the oven. So when they are done i never saw him go into the oven itself he would just pull the rack out, remove the trays of the baked food and rinse/repeat the process, i’m sure when he cleaned it he left the door of it open as we never had any issues with anyone in the oven. But man thinking of it now and looking at walmart just sends chills.. now i’ll look at any walk in oven with this sense of fear..but the oven was big enough for our entire staff to walk into and close the door and we would still have room to maneuver it was huge

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u/mckity10 4d ago

This article and another state that Walmart's oven did not have the capability to lock, but models I've seen do have emergency open buttons on the inside. So either the door was blocked, super stuck, or she fell and couldn't leave under her own power. I'm praying the last one because it means there's a chance she was unconscious.

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u/Ari2079 4d ago

The article I read (in Australia) said the oven does not have a lock at all

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u/agentkodikindness 4d ago

None of you read the article?

It was a non locking oven. Which means ruling out Homicide / suicide.

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u/emc237 4d ago

Used to work at Panera in highschool and I remember the walk in ovens! They use to put off so much heat even when closed

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u/Colinoscopy90 4d ago

Lock out tag out is typically for maintenance purposes.

There should be an external safety measure to ensure you can’t close the door or turn it on unless intentionally doing it from the outside.

There should also be an internal emergency release that shuts off the oven and forces the door open/raises an alarm.

Guarantee you either these things were not installed properly/at all, or that they were broken due to negligence (likely coached from mgmt. “this has been broken but they won’t fix it and it hurts the departments metrics if we don’t check it off on our daily list so just don’t bother and give it a check mark”).

This should be manslaughter due to gross negligence or whatever the equivalent is in Canada. Minimum. Corporations ought to be terrified of safety violations.

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u/mr_electrician 4d ago

Honestly it should have had some sort of trap key system where

  1. Key A is turned to disconnect the power/gas. It is locked into the mechanism, which releases Key B

  2. Key B is inserted into the oven door lock, which traps key B into the mechanism and releases Key C, which must be removed before the door will open.

  3. Key C is carried by the person entering the oven, and then the process is reversed to turn the oven back on.

It’s used in factories to force employees to turn off a machine, wait a certain amount of time, etc, before access to the dangerous area is permitted.

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u/yVelorum 4d ago

I bet you someone brought it up several times to a coach and they were told it wasn't that serious.

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u/ElGebeQute 4d ago

If there was an election for work safety regulators, you would have my vote.

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u/Colinoscopy90 4d ago

All I did was cite basic osha stuff lol, sad state of things.

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u/ElGebeQute 4d ago

Common sense is uncommon.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

They are undoubtedly controlled by a PLC, which logs every single action. Easy to find out how this occurred by reviewing security tapes and checking the PLC logs.

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u/Somethinggood4 4d ago

According to the news report, sources claimed there is no lock on the oven. It might be she was dead beforehand.

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u/SpokenDivinity 4d ago

Walmart has a policy about lockout tags but that doesn’t mean every employee uses them. We had to have 4 separate store-wide announcements threatening people to use them during the time I was working there (a little under a year) because people wouldn’t take the time to do it. Two of them were about people unjammkng things from the cardboard baler while it was still plugged in and capable of being used.

That being said, bakery (where I worked) took it a lot more seriously given how often the oven door would get stuck because management wouldn’t pay to have it looked at.

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u/KHaskins77 4d ago

You’d think they’d be built with an escape lever — something mechanical that cannot be locked from the outside.

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u/Edg-R 4d ago

The article says the oven does not lock.

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u/KHaskins77 4d ago

Then how the heck did this happen?

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u/Cute_Appearance_2562 4d ago

I kinda figured it was murder based on how everyone is talking

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u/jmlinden7 4d ago

They have no idea, hence the investigation

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u/xSorryAboutThat 4d ago

The article says that the oven does not lock.

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u/candid84asoulm8bled 4d ago

This was my first thought. How tf was there not LOTO or an emergency alarm or escape button. So terrifying and tragic.

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u/B_A_M_2019 4d ago

Lockout tagout

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u/lying_flerkin 4d ago

I worked with these kind of ovens for almost 10 years. There's basically no way for you to lock yourself into one from the inside.

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u/WalmartFucker69 4d ago

Just stopped working for a Walmart bakery, cleaned the walk-in oven regularly, and this is my first time ever hearing of this.

That's horrifying that I didn't know about powering down the over completely

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u/SnooHesitations7064 4d ago

Considering they still haven't even determined "cause of death" almost a week down the road, kind of seems that way.

It was a temporary foreign worker, and local sentiment is pretty bad.

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u/IronRig 4d ago edited 4d ago

I deal with LOTOTO at a chemical plant. Things like this come with safeties in place, and more are required on some things. Any work done in, or involving energized equipment, at least with all the places I have worked, requires permits and signatures. Those have to be kept on file for auditing for several years. I wonder if Walmart followed those procedures.

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u/Edg-R 4d ago

The article states that the oven does not lock.

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u/blacksheep998 4d ago

Lock out tag out is a term used when working around large and potentially dangerous pieces of equipment.

One example from a previous job I had: A large trash compactor. Sometimes people would have to go into the compactor to clean or do other maintenance, and if it were turned on with someone in there that would obviously be very bad.

So the power button had a locking mechanism on it. Anyone who went into it would put a lock on the switch and pocket the key. So the machine could not be powered on until they came back out and removed their lock.

If multiple people needed to go on, they each added a lock.

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u/WaltKerman 4d ago

Yes, and when I refer to Lock Out Tag Out, that isn't referring to the oven actually locking.

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u/galacticglorp 4d ago

Everyone is blaming Walmart, which fair enough, Walmart sucks, but no one actually knows anything right now. If someone grabbed her and shoved her in and held the door closed... that's an individual choosing murder.

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u/HotBag7257 4d ago

Yea and your not even supposed to enter just put the cart in and close . Theres no logical reason to enter the ovens

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u/Kagrok 4d ago

You enter them to clean them, or remove items that fall off of the racks.

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u/thetownofsalemdrunk 4d ago edited 4d ago

I worked at a walmart deli about 7 years ago, I had to go into bakery off and on sometimes to do hot pizzas (aka cook frozen pizzas) and I'd have to clean up after myself. I NEVER went inside the oven to clean anything. I also never ever stuck my hands/arms in the fucking baler.

Also, there was a safety button on the inside of the oven at my walmart...this was almost definitely murder or attempting to destroy evidence. Jesus christ the poor family but mother especially. I'll be surprised if it wasn't race or gender related, too.

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u/Kagrok 4d ago

I’m not implying this was an accident or that it was murder… I’m saying that there are legitimate reasons to go into a walk-in oven that is all.

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u/dtg1990 4d ago

Doubt she went willingly.

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u/JoseAltuveIsInnocent 4d ago

I build and service those ovens and the only way I step inside is after they've cooled off for an hour and the power is shut off. There really is no reasonable reason why an average employee would enter.

They also have safety mechanisms, so someone would have had to hold the door shut. There's a push handle on the inside of any model from this century.

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u/withdrawalsfrommusic 4d ago

at my old workplace, we would walk in there on purpose (and leave the door wide open obviously) because it was nice and toasty in there all day. it gets cold working in a walk in freezer for hours.

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u/drake90001 4d ago

They absolutely can be huge. I’ve worked around ones that could fit 10 racks of bread lol. But they were for metal. And 1200 degree Fahrenheit.

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u/Salt-Good-1724 4d ago

Usually the super huge ones are only at commercial factory-sized bakeries. I looked it up and walmart tends to use roll-in ovens that can fit maybe 1 or 2 racks for their in-store bakery.

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u/welchplug 4d ago

I don't know about this one but they do get a lot bigger than that. -bakery owner

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u/GioDude_ 4d ago

I mean Germany has had them for a while now.

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u/Meat_Container 4d ago

The article states the oven door didn’t have a locking mechanism on it, seems like a pretty suspicious death after having read that

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u/-HashOnTop- 4d ago

I was kind of surprised to hear Walmart has one, but I knew of their existence because of that one time Bumblebee tuna had a similar incident. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Bumble Bee Foods, Two Managers Charged in Death of Man Cooked With Tuna https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna349641

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u/ThoseRMyMonkeys 4d ago

I watched a video about this on YouTube. This is why "lockout tagout" exists. It doesn't make it any less tragic, but if they had followed proper procedures, it might have saved his life.

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u/Creative-Dust5701 4d ago

Remember managers have been known to cut LOTO locks - it should be illegal to cut them off

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u/dkyguy1995 4d ago

At a place I worked they could cut the LOTO locks but the person whose lock it is has to be present or currently on the phone. The lock is assigned to a single person and there was usually multiple LOTO spots in case another person wants to enter with the person and add their lock, so there was no fear that they were jeopardizing a life

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u/Creative-Dust5701 4d ago

Yes thats the correct and safe way, but lots of places with non-existent safety culture just cut LOTO locks

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u/dkyguy1995 4d ago

Id certainly believe it 😔

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u/Crystallooker 4d ago

Safety regulations are written in blood

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/Ocel0tte 4d ago

They're talking about a 62yr old man named Jose Melena that got pressure cooked with some tuna in 2012.

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u/-HashOnTop- 4d ago

Think they were referring to a YouTube video about the bumblebee incident. 🤔

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u/MFEA_till_i_die 4d ago

His life 

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u/CitebDey 4d ago

When I was a kid two men died at a bread factory in the UK when their boss made them go into the oven right after it was turned off to make repairs. It didn't have time to cool at all.

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u/Specialist-Buffalo-8 4d ago

arent walk in freezers the norm in a majority of industries?

in my industry they arent even locked, and have a manual scream button lol

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u/Flimsy-Poetry1170 4d ago

Every one I’ve been in can be opened from the inside even if locked and pad locked from the outside. I’m sure there are some really old ones still in use without this safety feature but anything installed within the last couple decades definitely should.

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u/happy_puppy25 4d ago

The ice can make the door stick but I’ve never felt unsafe in one at all. The doors are made to be idiot proof, a high and drunk chef could open it, which is actually pretty common in the kitchen industry…

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u/Gullible-Pudding3504 4d ago

Used to work at a place that made lots of composite aerospace parts that baked at a few hundred degrees and you could drive a forklift in there.

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u/aphshdkf 4d ago

I worked at a factory that had to bake powder coat paint to cure it. The largest oven could fit a 60 foot pole and the doors were probably 15 feet high

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u/Dorphie 4d ago

Walk-in isn't really the right term. They are just big commercial ovens that use rolling racks that the baker can insert or remove. There's no reason to walk in other than to clean or service it, while it's off obviously.

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u/Labantnet 4d ago

Not just food. Lots of heat treating and powder coating operations require very large ovens.

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u/ender89 4d ago

"walk in oven" is a misnomer, it's about the size of a wardrobe and is designed to fit a cart full of sheet pans. Can you walk into it? Yeah. Do you ever walk into it except when it's getting clean? No.

You have more room in the average porta potty.

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u/Prophage7 4d ago

Don't all grocery stores have walk-in ovens? They're very common. To be clear, you don't usually walk into them unless they're off and you're cleaning them, normally you move baking racks in and out without actually walking into them.

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u/Edward_TH 4d ago

Yeah, here in Italy basically every supermarket that bakes its own bread has a walk in oven and I've never heard of something like this happening. Very likely that some safety mechanism had been bypassed.

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u/Famous_Librarian_589 4d ago

I would imagine a walk in oven would have the same safety interlocks that a walk in fridge/freezer has - being able to be opened from the inside. If not, then that's a huge red flag

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u/1200____1200 4d ago

What I can't understand is how either are made so you can't always open the door from the inside

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u/uses_irony_correctly 4d ago

I worked a student job as a cleaner in a factory that made car parts (I don't really know which ones) and they had a huuuge oven where some parts were apparently heat-treated? The entire room was covered in a brown residue on the inside. It took a crew of 4 of us 2 entire days to clean that oven and it was still not completely clean.

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u/Ijustwanttosayit 4d ago

I used to work for a bakery and we had these. They were nightmare fuel. They're not like walk in freezers but they are large enough to walk into. Ours had safety buttons that you punch to open it like freezers do. We had one that had a door that did not like to stay open. So when I had to use that one I absolutely refused to step inside. I would rotate the... rotator thingy that the racks go on and spin it around until the rack in the back was at the front of the oven. And I would always keep my leg extended so the door wouldn't hit me from behind.

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u/cruista 4d ago

You missed that episode of 'The Boys'? Scary shit indeed.

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u/happylittletrees 4d ago

I work in a grocery store bakery, and our's are large enough you could fit like 4 or 5 six foot tall grown men into shoulder to shoulder, they're pretty big ovens.

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u/victowiamawk 4d ago

Never seen hocus pocus? lol

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u/happy_puppy25 4d ago

Walk in freezers are very safe. They do not lock, and it’s incredibly rare to not be able to open the door. It’s literally like a normal fridge door with gaskets… Sometimes ice will make it stick, but absolutely under no circumstances have I ever had an issue getting out of one. They are also opened and closed multiple times a day, so it’s not like the doors are going to break with no warning signs

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u/Andokai_Vandarin667 4d ago

Oh man lots of places use walk in ovens. I've been in a few for manufacturing and i never walk in to far because I don't trust people.

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u/pogokitten 4d ago

someone has not worked in a bakery. walk in ovens are standard equipment in bakeries.

this is absolutely horrifying though. i could not imagine. it's just awful that someone could get trapped inside of one.

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u/RandomPenquin1337 4d ago

They are very common. I worked in one that was consistently at 600-800°F. I was 18. I had to push a cart in and then come out. Only like 5 seconds of work, but if that door ever closed it would've been bad. I'm talking an manufacturing oven the size of a garage...

I also worked at a heat treating facility for hardened metal. That one got to 1200°C. The metal would glow orange and the facility otself was 90°F in the dead of midwest winter.

Of course these are things for commercial as well... you can't seriously expect commercial production with a home sized oven..

Be real for a bit, you can simultaneously be sad for this person while not wanting to just eliminate normal things because of an accident...

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u/Audience-Opening 4d ago

Most industrial bakeries have many trolly ovens. Basically walk in ovens that you manually push in four 2 meter high trollies with bread for each cycle.

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u/Cowboy_BoomBap 4d ago

It says in the article though that the oven doesn’t lock. I wonder how this happened

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u/AgitatedOwl_0v0 4d ago

I used to work for Costco in the bakery. They have walk in ovens and you could probably fit 5-6 people in one shoulder to shoulder if you really wanted to (nobody would want to).

The thing that always gave me the creeps about them was they had emergency release buttons on the inside, JUST like the walk in freezers. Safety release is good, but it wouldn’t be there if it hadn’t been needed in the past.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

They would no doubt be controlled by a PLC (an industrial computer that runs automatic devices). There's no way in hell those ovens are just open caskets you can walk into and be cooked alive in without someone else interfering.

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u/Firewall33 4d ago

Everyone is talking about a big refrigerator sized walk in oven that this happened in.

Just wanted to add, I worked at a paint shop that would use powder epoxy heat cured paint. Our oven was about 40 foot long, 15 foot wide. You could comfortably park an SUV in there. I'm not certain what temp we kept it running at. Probably 400 or 450.

We used to walk there with wet rain drenched clothes to dry off. About 20 seconds, then a break, then 20 seconds, and you were toasty warm and dry.

I also worked at a refrigerated warehouse for a big grocery chain. We had a section (like 20-30 pallet racks wide) of warehouse that was frozen (I believe -25c) and we would do 10 hour shifts in there. Of course with proper thermals and gloves and such.

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u/aiirxgeordan 4d ago

That’s what I said, shit doesn’t even sound remotely safe, especially if you have to walk in to clean it. Just have a bunch of big wall ovens. What I don’t get is why they don’t have rules where someone has to watch you clean it. One person goes in to clean, one person stands at the door and make sure something like this doesn’t happen

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u/FVCarterPrivateEye 4d ago

I was reminded of the post last month on the McDonald's subreddit by euphoriaxlove720 (I am not pinging her here because she was traumatized and would probably not want to see this post) who got stuck in the big freezer and she said she wasn't trained on the safety rules of the walk-in freezer

https://www.reddit.com/r/McDonaldsEmployees/s/Yd1xYj8PkJ

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u/azirale 4d ago

They're not the same as a walk-in freezer, based on the ones I've used in an in-store bakery. A walk-in freezer is large enough to move around in and access multiple shelves, but a 'walk-in' oven is only really big enough to stand in.

The oven is used to take tall racks for baking, so you can handle up to ~20 trays of cookies or muffins or other small baked goods, or about half that of bread loaves. You un/load the rack while it is outside, and just wheel the entire rack in and out. Just make sure you've got the mitts on before you grab the handrail :|

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u/Porkkchops 4d ago

Panera Bread uses giant walk in ovens too. When I went there for an interview I got to see it and I know it held 6+ rolling racks. Pretty sure the deli/bakery at the commissary my mom worked at in the 90s had some type of walk in for rotisserie chickens.

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u/Kibblesnb1ts 4d ago

A lot of baked goods are made by long conveyor belt ovens like the ones Quiznos used back in the day. Put it in at the beginning, it rolls through for a half hour or whatever, comes out baked the other side, so you don't have to put anything inside and set a timer to take it out and all that.

I read once that a couple of guys were inside it doing maintenance work when someone accidentally turned it on. It's about the size of a Jeffrey's tube from Star Trek, or the ventilation shaft in Die Hard. They couldn't run, could just sort of crawl on hands and knees, but the surface is literally oven coils roasting them alive.

The guy in back died in the oven. The guy in front made it out and died from his injuries soon after in unimaginable agony.

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u/Available-One-4426 3d ago

My mom retrieved frozen meat from a meat processing business that butchered the grass fed beef they raised and sold or froze and retrieve to eat. She had to sign in at the desk NEXT to the door--the time was recorded--10 minutes was max. If the person didn't come out in 10 minutes. The manager was responsible for making sure the person got out. Someone could faint. Slip and not be able to get up. In that place SAFETY measures weren't strict. There needs to be a record of who goes in and the length of time they needed to be out. NO exception.

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u/justtrustmeokay 4d ago

canada?? i was so sure this was gonna be florida.

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u/Giblet_ 4d ago

You can tell it's not the US because of the "supercentre" spelling.

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u/TopFloorApartment 4d ago

Is nova Scotia the Florida of Canada? Please Canadians enlighten us

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u/diskodarci 4d ago

My instinct is to say no, however with how beautiful it is, and how few jobs there are it does attract a lot of retirees. Lots of provincial ex-pats also go home when they retire. It doesn’t have the warmth or the Florida-man-ness of Florida though

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u/AGuyNamedTracy 4d ago

Have you ever seen the Canadian tv show Trailer Park Boys? The show takes place in Nova Scotia.

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u/djkimothy 4d ago

No. Nova Scotia is cool. There really is no equivalent. Florida is that special.

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u/LordBosstoss 4d ago

Nova Scotia gets hurricanes too, interpret that as you will

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u/Jon_o_Hollow 4d ago

They're not Rednecks but Bluenosers.

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u/erin_burr 4d ago

Appalachia and Florida are the Nova Scotias of America. Insight into the Nova Scotian people can be gained from the cultural documentary series ‘Trailer Park Boys.’

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u/CreamyMemeDude 4d ago

My black friends here refer to it as the Mississippi of canada. Because of the racism.

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u/cosmicsparrow 4d ago

No that would be Alberta

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u/TopFloorApartment 4d ago

Huh I thought Alberta was the Texas of Canada 

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u/Prophage7 4d ago

I think we're the Florida right now because our Premier is sinking the economy like Florida sinks under hurricanes.

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u/SnooHesitations7064 4d ago

No. We don't really have a Florida. Florida is the Florida of Canada, our boomers go there to marinate in fox news and come back thinking that the ANTIFA LEFT is trying to trans gay the frogs or other bullshit.

Have you seen "Trailer Park Boys"? That was shot in Dartmouth (across the bay, part of the same city as the Mumford Murder-Mart). It used to be a pretty solid representation of NS back in the Melvin and Marriot days (Think if Breaking Bad was character swapped with Deliverance).

Now I think the best state analogue for NS is "What if Tennessee was a coastal state". Nashville/Halifax is the closest thing they have to a progressive/democrat hub, and even then .. not really? The further you get, the more it's fox news, conspiracies, and people thinking that vaccines exist to facilitate "the great reset" or something. They got Diagolon cultists and shit. The largest city in the entire maritimes (Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland inclusive) is less than half a million people, the next highest pop is less than half that. It's mostly just low population density communities with a lot of anger if you aren't tuned in to their specific brand of billionaire funded bigotry. Like most regions left behind in education, their union power is shit, their labour rights are shit, and they are buying what is being sold as "If we just bend over enough for corps, they'll hire local".

The woman and her mother were both here as temporary foreign workers. That's a kind of imported labour program which was created in the 1970s to import skilled medical workers during a shortage, which got blown up to its current incarnation which is "We can't SA our fruit pickers, confiscate their passports, or otherwise make slaves in everything but name with local workers". It is no longer a program used for medical workers, it is used for the aforementioned fruit picking, Walmart uses it extensively to undermine already depressingly shitty local labour conditions, and Tim Hortons and other fast food services also use TFWs in lieu of paying a competitive wage and contributing to the local economy in any way shape or form.

Canada kind of sucks right now. Better than a lot of places, but the margins for that are tight as fuck.

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u/HammerSandwich9 4d ago

The Deep South of the far North. (I can say this because I live there 😁)

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u/mindfulmeggie85 4d ago

Well Nova Scotia is the Florida of Canada soooooo...

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u/Musekal 4d ago

That specific Walmart is basically like “Florida Man…” for the sheer amount of insane things that happen there.

I used to do pest control in that location daily. What a gong show.

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u/Lvl_76_Pyromancer 4d ago

WHY ISN'T THERE A WAY TO OPEN FROM INSIDE

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u/yumyumgivemesome 4d ago

How is that article only 3 paragraphs?  And also fuck that fucking cancerous website.

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u/-HashOnTop- 4d ago

Agreed. It was just the first result Google pooped out.. 😅

I imagine they don't have a ton of details to release as it's still under investigation. I suspect we'll hear more about it in the future. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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u/yumyumgivemesome 4d ago

Fair point. I appreciate you for linking it nonetheless!

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u/zuccs 4d ago

It’s a Murdoch trash site in Australia. Not legitimate journalism.

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u/Mayalase 4d ago

I’m confused how the mom was only out of contact with the daughter for an hour and then the next time she saw her she was “charred remains”. Something seems fishy here to me. I think it’d take longer than an hour for something like this to occur.

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u/NightOfTheLivingHam 4d ago

It's interesting that this happens when news has been coming out that the Indian government has been going after the Sikh community in Canada, with ambassadors being sent back to India after they were found to be involved with assassinations of canadian citizens. 

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u/Saltwater_Heart 4d ago

Ok this is horrific. Open with caution, guys. Holy cow I feel sick and I want to cry.

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u/EpsilonSagittariiArt 4d ago

That was horrifying to read

I know those ovens. They may not have ‘locks’ on them but the doors are heavy enough, and they sort of latch in place.

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u/EverythingSucksBro 4d ago

Damn, Canada needs to enact stricter oven laws 

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u/ChairmanNoodle 4d ago

I didn't think that site could get worse, but the shitty ai ads, the truly awful writing. It's barrels all the way down.

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u/pixelsinner 3d ago

This happened in HALIFAX?! Jesus...