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Eerie update at Halifax Walmart where bakery worker was cooked to death in oven
By RACHEL BOWMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COMPublished: 01:30 EST, 11 February 2025 | Updated: 01:39 EST, 11 February 2025
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The Canadian Walmart store where a teenage employee was baked to death inside a walk-in oven has officially reopened more than three months after the tragedy.
Gursimran Kaur's charred remains were found by her mother inside the large scale bakery oven of the Walmart she worked at in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on October 19.
The mother and her 19-year-old daughter had emigrated from India to Canada around three years ago and the duo soon began to work at the store.
On October 19, her mother noticed she'd been missing from the shop floor for over an hour, with her phone unusually turned off and unreachable. It was then that a colleague in the bakery section pointed out a 'leakage' from inside the walk-in oven.
By the time emergency responders arrived at the scene, Kaur had died inside the industrial oven. Her mother found her charred remains.
Police ruled out foul play in November, but the store was closed until February 3 for renovations.
'It's great to have our customers and our associates back in the store,' Nick Ritcey with Walmart Canada's corporate affairs told CBC.
'Obviously the tragedy is still top of mind and it's something that will be sad forever.'
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The Halifax Walmart store where Gursimran Kaur, 19, was baked to death in a walk-in oven has decided to throw out the industrial-grade appliance
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The duo began working at Walmart together shortly after arriving to Canada from India
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Ritcey said the nearly 325 staff were paid while the store was closed and Walmart continues to be in contact with Kaur's family.
'Three months is still very recent for that magnitude of a tragedy,' Ritcey said. 'We'll continue to be in contact and make sure that we work out the best situation possible with them.'
After police gave the Halifax store the clear to re-open, Walmart confirmed that they would remove the walk-in oven from the premises.
Walmart spokesperson Amanda Moss told the National Post: 'This is an extremely sad and difficult situation.
'Removing the oven had always been part of the standard remodel program we are implementing across the country.
'Now that the stop-work order has been lifted by the Department of Labor, the oven will be removed from this store and will no longer be used.'
The investigation into Kaur's death remains underway as to how the tragic event took place.
Disturbing revelations have come to light during the investigation as sources told CBC that the appliance within the Halifax store 'did not lock.'
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While the exact brand of the oven involved in the incident has not yet been revealed, other Walmart stores are known to have ovens like the one pictured installed
911 call reveals how a 19-year-old Walmart employee died in oven mishap
Following Kaur's death, a series of TikTok videos have been circulating online showing Walmart employees demonstrating stepping inside other Walmart ovens and using the emergency release from inside.
'This door does not close by itself... It doesn't latch. It's designed not to do that. You have to push it, hear the click,' one employee said in a video.
She commented later that she wasn't trying to 'theorize or form a conspiracy', but that the tragic situation was 'hard to wrap my head around' when Walmart's bakery ovens 'are so safe to use.'
Both Kaur and her mother were members of the Maritime Sikh Society who set up a Go Fund Me to help the family's 'unimaginable and indescribable' bereavement.
The fundraiser said that Kaur's father and brother remained in India and the money was being used to bring them to Canada.
