Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Fort McPherson (Nov 04/02) - A man was seriously injured in an explosion Oct. 29 near the Peel River ferry landing, south of Fort McPherson.

Abe Peterson was cutting an empty 45-gallon drum at about 4 p.m. when a spark from his electric cutting tool apparently ignited residual fumes inside.

The blast threw him into a chain-link fence and he suffered a broken leg, said Gurdev Jagpal, superintendent for the Department of Transportation in Inuvik.

Peterson was taken to the Fort McPherson nursing centre, then medevaced to an Edmonton hospital for treatment. He is expected to make a full recovery.

He is employed by Stoney Creek Enterprises, the Tetlit Gwich'in company contracted by the Department of Transportation to operate the Peel River ferry.

The ferry was shut down for the season on Oct. 25. According to James Wilson, the company's general manager, Peterson was working with four or five others when the accident happened.

"They were just cleaning up the yard, pulling the cables up and storing them," Wilson said. "It was really a freak accident."

The Department of Transportation is investigating the incident, but Wilson said Friday it wasn't clear what was in the barrel that exploded.