Worker Randy Peace, 31, was working at Conservit, a scrap metal-recycling company near Hagerstown, when he was hit and pinned between the forklift and the ground, then dragged for a short distance

An employee at a scrap metal-recycling company near Hagerstown was injured this week when he was struck by a forklift, marking the second workplace incident there in less than a month.


Randy Peace, 31, of Hagerstown was working at Conservit on Wednesday morning when he was hit and pinned between the forklift and the ground, then dragged for a short distance, according to his wife, Kalah Peace.


"Nothing fell on him," she wrote in an interview through Facebook on Friday.


Kalah Peace said her husband was taken to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he underwent surgery Thursday morning.


He remained hospitalized there in fair condition Friday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.


Conservit President Jack Metzner — who declined to identify Peace, citing privacy —said the incident is under investigation, both internally and by Maryland Occupational Safety and Health.


A spokeswoman with the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation confirmed that MOSH launched an investigation into the incident, but declined further comment.


Metzner said the business has not been restricted or shut down as a result of the incident or the investigation.


"Right now, it's just much like the other incident," he said. "There's an ongoing review taking place right now and I imagine I'll be hearing more with MOSH and their findings" next week.


The incident follows a fatal accident at Conservit on March 5, when a vehicle slipped off a forklift and fell on 51-year-old Curtis Lynn Beasley of Hagerstown.


Beasley died at the scene, according to authorities.


Metzner said the car forklift was different from the one involved in Wednesday's incident at the business, which is off Sharpsburg Pike, south of Hagerstown.


The forklift operator stopped immediately after coming into contact with Peace, according to Metzner. He said the employee remained conscious and alert before he was taken to Meritus Medical Center for treatment of injuries not considered life threatening.


"He was awake through the whole thing and could let us know how he felt," Metzner said.


In the wake of the incidents, Metzner said, the company is making changes to improve safety, such as slowing the flow of materials and having two or three people, rather than just one, stationed at different locations to help maintain communication between workers.


"We're putting lots of safeguards into place," he said. "That's really the game plan here."


At the time, the fatal accident at Conservit was the fifth death linked to an industrial accident in the Tri-State area over a span of 32 days.


Three men died from injuries in a crane accident on Feb. 2 at Manitowoc Co.’s 300-acre manufacturing facility east of Greencastle, Pa. On Feb. 28, another man was killed when a piece of equipment fell on him at Mellott Manufacturing north of Mercersburg, Pa.
=================



A Conservit employee died Monday morning after a vehicle being transported by a forklift slipped off and hit him at the scrap-metal recycler south of Hagerstown, according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office.


The sheriff's office on Monday afternoon identified the employee as Curtis Lynn Beasley, 51, of Hagerstown.


Beasley died at the scene. His body was to be sent to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.


The incident at the business at 18656 Leslie Drive, off Sharpsburg Pike, south of Hagerstown, was ruled an accident.


Multiple emergency-service units were called to Conservit after an initial report came in at 7:55 a.m. Monday for a man trapped under a vehicle, a 911 supervisor said.


The 911 supervisor said the man had a crushing injury.


It appeared a vehicle had fallen on the man, though the 911 supervisor did not know the circumstances.


Wind was not a factor, according to the sheriff's office.


Maryland Occupational Safety and Health responded to the scene.


Conservit is an employee-owned scrap-metal recycler. The operation shreds metal, including vehicles.


This is the fifth death related to an industrial accident in the Tri-State area in the past 32 days.


Three men died from injuries related to a crane accident on Feb. 2 at Manitowoc Co.’s 300-acre manufacturing facility off Pa. 16 in Antrim Township.


Chris Robison, 49, of Marion, Pa., and 66-year-old John Marcoux of Chambersburg, Pa., were killed in the crane accident the day it occurred.


A third man — Isaac Dean Notz, 38, of Wisconsin — died Feb. 10


Separately, Cameron Allen Funk, 19, of Greencastle, Pa., was killed last Wednesday at Mellott Manufacturing in Peters Township, Pa., after a heavy piece of manufacturing equipment fell on him. The plant is at 13156 Long Lane, north of Mercersburg.


Mellott produces log and lumber handling equipment, according to its website.

A 50-year old worker at the Long Island City-based Leadstone USA, a wholesale marble warehouse, was crushed to death while attempting to move two marble stone slabs

A worker at a wholesale marble warehouse was crushed to death while attempting to move two stone slabs Friday afternoon.

The unidentified 50-year-old Queens man was an employee for the Long Island City-based Leadstone USA, located on 50th Ave., across the street from a UPS warehouse in the shadow of the Long Island Expressway, authorities said.

The worker attempted to move the marble slabs with a mechanical hoist about 5 p.m, when he may have slipped and became trapped under the heavy rock.

The man, authorities said, suffered severe trauma to the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 50-year-old UPS employee, who only gave his first name Vic, said that he has observed the contraption that he called “a boom,” which the company uses to move its stone slabs.

He said he’s seen the marble lifted to a beam on the ceiling that moves along a track the width of the warehouse.

Despite not knowing the victim, he was overcome with emotion.



“Just imagine what he was going through with that initial contact,” Vic said, standing outside the taped-off warehouse, hours after the deadly incident. “Ugh, what he was thinking. Hopefully it just knocked him out.

“This has not been a Good Friday,” he said.

The victim’s name was not released, pending family notification and the cause of death will be determined by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

The rock company’s website claims it deals in “the highest quality marble” composed of 93% “natural Quartz” and 7% resin.

Leadstone USA’s site also boasts supplying distributors and fabricators for kitchen sinks or bathroom vanities with “the largest standard size slabs in the industry” measuring 126 inches by 64 inches.

Attempts to reach the owner of Leadstone USA’s Long Island City outfit, where its warehouse is located, or its Monroe Township, N.J., offices were not immediately returned.

Pharmaceutical worker Sergio Escobar, 59, of Brentwood, NY was killed as he was cutting a metal drum with a grinder at Bactolac Pharmaceutical when the drum exploded and struck him

Sergio Escobar, 59, of Brentwood, was cutting a metal drum with a grinder at about 11:45 a.m. at Bactolac Pharmaceutical when the drum exploded and struck

Hauppauge, Long Island, NY
 
A pharmaceutical worker died after an industrial accident Friday in Hauppauge, police said.

Sergio Escobar, 59, of Brentwood, was cutting a metal drum with a grinder at about 11:45 a.m. at Bactolac Pharmaceutical “when the drum exploded and struck Escobar,” Suffolk County police said in a statement.

Escobar was taken by ambulance to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Police are investigating the accident at the Old Willets Path business and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was notified, police said.

OSHA sent an inspector to the scene, said James C. Lally, a spokesman for the Department of Labor, which includes the workplace-safety agency, in an email.

Bactolac Pharmaceutical could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

=============

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The March 22 death of forklift operator Ricky Paterson at Fuyao Glass America Inc.’s Moraine plant comes amid concerns that high-pressure work environments across the country are causing more injuries on the job.

The March 22 death of a forklift operator at Fuyao Glass America Inc.’s Moraine plant comes amid concerns that high-pressure work environments across the country are causing more injuries on the job.

The most recent statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show workplace deaths in 2016 topped 5,000 for the first time since 2008. It also marked the third-straight increase in fatal injuries over the previous year.

Some argue an improved economy is putting more pressure on employees, saying fatigue becomes a factor as more work comes in.

“There may be some systematic changes that are happening with regards to stress and fatigue, that are leading more to tense work environments, that are contributing more to higher pressure,” said Lora Cavuoto, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Buffalo. “That can contribute to workplace violence or transportation accidents.”



Others argue that employer decisions make the workplace more dangerous.

When times are tough, “the first people to be laid off may be the safety people,” said Pam Seminario. director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO union.

As the economy improves, she said, the new workers brought in tend to be younger and less experienced.

“More younger people, that is definitely a factor,” Seminario said. “There’s no question about that.”

About 40 percent of fatal workplace accidents involve some form of transportation, according to the government. Violence and injuries account for another 23 percent of deaths, the second most common cause. Exposure to harmful chemicals rose 22 percent in 2016 while fires and explosions declined 27 percent.

LOCAL DEATHS

Ohio’s fatal injuries dropped in 2016 after rising steadily between 2013 to 2015. Although the 2017 numbers aren’t out yet, several local deaths were recorded, and at a wide variety of workplaces.



OSHA and Department of Labor records show several fatal incidents locally in 2017:

• In August 2017, Douglas Mescher, 30, of Lebanon, was killed when the load he was under slid off the forks of a forklift and crushed him. In that incident, OSHA opened an inspection with Walther Engineering in Franklin and SK Rigging Co. Inc., which was hired by Walther’s to move a machine.

• In July 2017, a worker died after a fall from a ladder at a Macy’s credit and customer services center in Mason.

• In Dayton, in May 2017, a worker died after falling from a load being lifted into a trailer at YRC Freight.

• In April 2017, a Brown’s Tree Service & Landscaping worker in Hamilton was killed after being struck by a front-end loader.

• In December 2017, a worker was killed in a trench collapse in Salem Twp., Warren County, and in June 2016, another man was killed in a Washington Twp. trench accident.

Some experts say accidents could be eliminated if safety concerns were put first in a company’s planning.

“All companies experiencing growth are going to face new challenges, new hazards, and the need to train new employees,” said John Morris, the Springboro-based president of Mid-America OSHA Education Center, which trains businesses on OSHA standards. “An investment in safety is critical.”

DEATH AT FUYAO
Fuyao forklift operator Ricky Patterson, 57, of Dayton died early March 22 after he was trapped between his forklift and a pallet holding more than 2,000 pounds of glass, according to Moraine police.

Video at the West Stroop Road plant captured the moment, police said.

“The video shows the pallet of glass shifted forward,” according to Moraine police records. “Patterson then walks in between the forklift and the glass, grabs a strip cutter, and cuts the west side strap, causing the glass to crush him in the forklift.”

“Multiple Fuyao employees assisted with containing the pallet of glass and extracting Patterson from the forklift,” according to the report.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the events that led to Patterson’s death and have not returned calls seeking comment since the fatal accident.

OSHA officials said they would not comment on the case until the investigation is complete. Fuyao officials released a statement following the accident, calling Patterson a “valued colleague and friend,” vowing to work with federal and state officials while calling company safety “the top priority.”

Fuyao, Moraine’s largest employer with about 2,000 workers, was fined $100,000 by OSHA last year for “serious” safety violations. Employees have repeatedly expressed concern about workplace safety.



The United Auto Workers soundly lost a bid to organize the Fuyao plant last year. One concern the union and its local allies consistently expressed during a campaign to persuade workers to form a new bargaining unit was plant safety,

“We stand with the workers at Fuyao, who for some time now have been concerned about health and safety issues at the Moraine plant,” said Brian Rothenberg, a spokesman for the UAW, said in an email.

A spokesman for Fuyao declined to comment for this story, citing the OSHA investigation.

DISTURBING NUMBERS
The number of fatal accidents in the nation are “quite disturbing,” Seminario said. The rate of workplace deaths went up from 3.4 to 3.6 fatal incidents per 100,000 workers in 2016, she said.

Seminario said the most recent numbers are from the last year of Barack Obama’s administration. But she said safety enforcement agencies have gradually been “starved” of needed funds and staffing since 2001.


Seminario argues that OSHA needs a $100 million boost in its budget, just to keep pace with inflation. She’s concerned about staffing levels, too.

According to figures she said OSHA provided the AFL-CIO, in fiscal year 2001 OSHA had 1,001 compliance employees, both inspectors and supervisory personnel.

Today, that number is lower. OSHA has 974 compliance staff. Of those, just 764 people are inspectors, she said.

The data is clear, Seminario argues: Where government oversight exists, workplaces tend to be safer.

Death rates are rising in sectors where OSHA doesn’t have much presence, she said — sectors like transportation, utilities and hospitality.

With OSHA or agencies like it, oversight and standards address hazards. And standards force changes in workplace practices, which creates safer environments, she said.

“You put in place a system of safety and health,” Seminario said. “That exists more fully in sectors where the standards apply and where there’s more oversight.”

Stronger economy

When companies are busier in a stronger economy, accidents can happen, experts say. Workers can become tired and distracted.

Seminario pushed back against the idea that a stronger economy is somehow more dangerous. A stronger economy also means employers have “more resources to deal with the problems,” she said.

About 40 percent of fatal workplace accidents involve some form of transportation, according to the government. Violence and injuries account for another 23 percent of deaths, the second most common cause. Exposure to harmful chemicals rose 22 percent in 2016 while fires and explosions declined 27 percent.

A stronger economy means more trucks on the road and busier distribution hubs. Factories and suppliers are busier, Cavuoto said. More demand is felt across industry.

In Ohio in 2016, private transportation and warehousing saw the highest number of on-the-job fatalities with 32, down by 4 from 2015.

“If you have a lot of people working overtime, they may not be able to make … good decisions as they get into longer hours — which could lead to shortcuts and mistakes being made,” Cavuoto said.

The deadly Tech Terrace fire that killed two people started at the rear of the structure under the carport in Lubbock, Texas. The heat from the fire "impinged on several cylinders of compressed gas," causing them to explode.

Tech Terrace explosions caused by fire heating cylinders of compressed gas 

Thursday, March 29th 2018, 10:56 pm EDT
By KCBD Digital







Source: Caleb Holder, KCBD

Back yard of house next door to explosion site (Source: Caleb Holder, KCBD)

Back yard of house next door to explosion site (Source: Caleb Holder, KCBD)

Back yard of house next door to explosion site (Source: Caleb Holder, KCBD)

Source: Caleb Holder, KCBD
LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) -

Lubbock fire investigators released their initial report on Thursday night, as they work to determine the cause of a deadly fire and house explosion in Tech Terrace.

The report says a fire started at the rear of the structure under the carport. The heat from the fire "impinged on several cylinders of compressed gas," causing them to explode. The first cylinders exploded just before Lubbock firefighters arrived on scene. Explosions continued as other cylinders reached an overpressure point.

Our crew grabbed a photo of an exploded metal tank in the driveway of the home next door.

Here's the full statement from Lubbock Fire Rescue:


Late this afternoon, the group of fire investigators completed their initial examination of the fire scene. They report that a fire of unknown origin started at the rear of the structure, under the carport area. The heat from the initial fire then impinged on several cylinders of compressed gas. The cylinders reached an overpressure point and exploded just prior to the arrival of Lubbock Fire Rescue. Several other explosions occurred as other cylinders reached the point of overpressure over the next several minutes as firefighters fought to bring it under control.

Determination of the initial cause of the fire was severely hampered by damage caused by the exploding cylinders. Today’s scene examination is part of an overall investigation into this incident that will be ongoing. Information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.

Lubbock Fire Rescue wishes to express our sympathy to the families of the deceased and those injured in this incident. We also want to express our gratitude to the agencies previously mentioned as well as the Lubbock Police Department and others that provided assistance.

LFR Hazmat was call back to the scene for about two hours on Thursday and left at 5:30 p.m.

We will continue to update this story as more details are released.

The explosion happened just before 10 p.m. Tuesday night at a home in the 2900 block of 21st Street.

Witnesses said the explosion was felt several blocks away. Windows in the house across the street were shattered by the blast. A house on the corner of 21st & Canton actually had a piece of debris from the explosion land on their roof.

According to the Lubbock Police Department, multiple victims were found at the scene when they arrived.

One of the victims, 72-year-old John Fleming, was pronounced deceased at the scene, while three additional victims were taken to University Medical Center by ambulance with serious injuries. Officials say 45-year-old Rodica Gelca, one of the three taken to the hospital, was later pronounced deceased at UMC. Officials say Gelca was trying to help put out the fire.

The additional two people who were transported are expected to recover, according to officials. Three Lubbock firefighters were also taken to the hospital with minor injuries and have since been released from the hospital.

According to our research, John Flemming owned the home and ran the business E2Amm LLC out of the home. The company manufactures hydrogen and ammonia modules. At this time, authorities have not said if the chemicals in the home caused the explosion.

Although there were some concerns about possible hazardous materials at the scene, Lubbock Fire Rescue issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon to try and "dispel any rumors of chemicals in the air in this area."

Fire investigators have not identified a cause of the fire at this time, but they say it "is not believed to be criminal in nature."

===============



LUBBOCK, TX (NEWS RELEASE) - The following is a news release from Lubbock Fire Rescue:

On Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 Lubbock Fire Rescue responded to 2910 21st street at approximately 9:54 PM for a reported structure fire. Upon arrival, units found heavy fire issuing from the residence. During firefighting operations, multiple explosions occurred on scene.

As reported on Wednesday, Investigators from the Lubbock Fire Marshal’s Office, State Fire Marshal’s Office and Federal Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began an intensive examination of the scene to attempt to determine what caused this unfortunate incident.

Late this afternoon, the group of fire investigators completed their initial examination of the fire scene. They report that a fire of unknown origin started at the rear of the structure, under the carport area. The heat from the initial fire then impinged on several cylinders of compressed gas. The cylinders reached an overpressure point and exploded just prior to the arrival of Lubbock Fire Rescue. Several other explosions occurred as other cylinders reached the point of overpressure over the next several minutes as firefighters fought to bring it under control.



Determination of the initial cause of the fire was severely hampered by damage caused by the exploding cylinders. Today’s scene examination is part of an overall investigation into this incident that will be ongoing. Information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.

Lubbock Fire Rescue wishes to express our sympathy to the families of the deceased and those injured in this incident. We also want to express our gratitude to the agencies previously mentioned as well as the Lubbock Police Department and others that provided assistance.

(News release from Lubbock Fire Rescue)