honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, May 18, 2009

State probing tower's fatal fall


By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser Staff Writer

State inspectors will continue to investigate the cause of the collapse of a cooling tower at Campbell Industrial Park Saturday that killed a man.

They will be looking for any health and safety violations that may have led to the man's death, said Ryan Markham, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

"I'm not sure when we'll be able to piece everything together," Markham said. "It's an ongoing investigation. Any time there's a fatality we take it very seriously."

State Occupational Safety and Health investigators review work-related injuries and deaths. If violations are found, the state OSHA division can issue citations.

As of last night, the Honolulu medical examiner's office had not yet identified the victim of Saturday's collapse or determined a preliminary cause of death.

The dead worker — described as being in his 50s — was part of a crew hired by Hawaiian Cement to dismantle the unused cooling tower. The tower collapsed at 8 a.m. and the worker was found dead at 3:15 p.m., according to Honolulu firefighters.

Another worker escap- ed uninjured.

The tower consisted of six columns surrounded by a steel support structure. The decades-old tower was being "pre-weakened" by the two workers when it crashed, firefighters said.

The men were employees of A.G. Transport of California, specialists in industrial demolition, and were working locally with San Construction of Hawaii. Two calls to Hawaiian Cement yesterday from The Advertiser were not answered.

Last year, 23 people died because of job-related injuries in the Islands, compared to 30 in 2006. Before Saturday, the most recent job-related death occurred in October when a man died in an explosion at Campbell Industrial Park. The blast was centered on a 9,500-gallon tank at PSC Industrial Outsourcing Co., of Philip Services Corp.