An employee of a contractor performing work for FirstEnergy, died following a workplace accident at the Harrison Power Station in Harrison County on March 20, 2013. The accident occurred around 8:45 a.m., according to the OSHA area director.
The man was an employee of Burnham Industrial Contractors Inc., an insulating company based in Pittsburgh, according to a FirstEnergy spokeswoman.
According to the State Journal, the contracting company, Burnham Industrial, was removing insulation from ductwork in preparation for an upcoming planned maintenance outage when their employee fell through and into the ductwork, according to a March 20 letter from the power station’s director to employees.
“Scaffold planks on the duct structure beams were being used throughout the job to prevent any direct contact with the duct plating,” the letter reads. “At this time, it is not clear how the employee was positioned to have any contact with the duct plating.”
As a personal injury attorney who has had the privilege of helping the families of employees killed or injured while working at power plants, I am always saddened to hear that there is another family whose life has now been forever changed by a tragic death associated with working conditions at a local power plant.
Utility Workers Union of American attorney Mark Brooks shared a little more information.
“We were told that the company (Burnham) had worked on that particularly duct work and moved on to another part of the plant,” Brooks said. “And this worker went back to retrieve some tools and he was later found having fallen through a weak spot in the ductwork.”
He said it’s his understanding that the temperature inside the ductwork, when operating, approaches 300 degrees, and that the man was found by another Burnham employee.
He was unable to say whether it is standard practice to perform work on ductwork while the system is in operation.
FirstEnergy owns the coal-fired power plant. FirstEnergy, Burnham Industrial, and OSHA are all investigating the cause of the fatality to determine who was at fault for this tragic and untimely death. Officials will continue to investigate the accident to determine how and why safety measures failed and whether there were any violations of federal safety regulations.
The insurance companies will be doing everything within their legal power to minimize this claim and avoid paying full compensation. They will hire or use company lawyers to aggressively fight your claim. These types of claims are complicated and can be lost on technical or procedural violations. It is essential for this family to hire an attorney who has a reputation for experience and success in handling wrongful death claims.
What is a Wrongful Death?
Allow us to answer some of your questions: http://www.robinettelaw.com/Articles/Wrongful-Death-Claims-in-West-Virginia.shtml.
This is the second death at the Harrison Power Station in less than two years. A Rivesville man died at the facility in September 2011 when he was pinned between a machine and a guardrail. FirstEnergy was found by OSHA to be at fault for this employee’s death.
Submitted by the Robinette Legal Group, PLLC, West Virginia Injury Lawyers. Free books and downloads for WV accident victims — Call us today: 304-594-1800 for your free copy of Righting the Wrong: WV Serious Injury Guide; Collision Care: WV Auto Injury Guide; or Beside Still Waters: WV Fatal Injury Guide for Families. We are glad to answer your questions.
