75 people were rescued after a 48-inch water main broke in East Falls on Friday, flooding some businesses in a shopping center and leaving shoppers stranded

Water main break floods East Falls shopping center, 75 rescued









Action News was there Saturday as restoration crews cleaned out businesses, and washed the parking lot. (WPVI)

Bob Brooks
Updated 1 hr 37 mins ago
HUNTING PARK (WPVI) -- The Philadelphia Fire Department says 75 people were rescued after a 48-inch water main broke in East Falls on Friday, flooding some businesses in a shopping center and leaving shoppers stranded.

Action News was there Saturday as restoration crews cleaned out businesses, and washed the parking lot.

Chopper 6 was over the scene just before 4:30 p.m. on the 3400 block of Fox Street as a gusher of water poured out of the parking lot in a shopping center near a ShopRite supermarket.



It quickly turned the lot into a river.

Kecia Vasquez had to evacuate ShopRite to safety.

"I fell. It was cold. I had to walk cause SEPTA wasn't running, and I had loaned out my car, so I had to walk all the way home. I was drenched. It was so cold," said Vasquez.

At first glance from the air, it looked like a body floating in the water, but it turned out to be a mannequin that got washed out of one of the stores.















A water main broke at a shopping center in East Falls on Friday, November 4.
Sherri Williams was shopping inside Ross.

"Someone started screaming like, 'The water! The water!' " said Williams of Mount Airy.

Ross is now closed.

Soon, fire rescue crews could be seen using rafts to get people to safety.

"We ended up rescuing or moving across the water about 75 people, sheltered another 150 people in various locations throughout the shopping center," said Philadelphia Fire Department Commissioner Adam Thiel.





A water main break flooded a shopping center in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.

One woman we spoke with says she knows someone who was trapped in their car, and may have drowned if it weren't for a quick response.

"They carried her. Threw her over her their shoulders, and carried her out. She was trapped inside. Yes," said Valerie of Tioga.
The Philadelphia Water Department says this is the fourth water main break at this location since January 2014.

"The valves were not fully open because we wanted to be able to get a quicker shut. It's 100-plus turns (to shut the valve off)," said Philadelphia Water Department Commissioner Debra McCurdy.

By the time they shut it off, officials estimate 6 million gallons of water had spewed out causing roughly $500,000 worth of damage to businesses and people's cars.

Where the pipe burst has created this massive sinkhole. The huge mess is it not going to be easy to fix.

Now upset neighbors are hoping for a final solution.

"I think it's the water department not doing something properly cause that hole was like that for months, months and months from the last one," said Valerie.

And some customers think it may be time to find another place to shop.

"This place is cursed, I'm gonna tell you right now," said a ShopRite customer.

Worker killed after an 80-pound metal support beam fell on top of him at Frenchman Valley Produce Inc. in Imperial, NE

UPDATE: OSHA Investigates death after Metal Beam fell on a worker in Wallace, NE


By Amy Kauffman, OSHA Press Release
Updated: Thu 9:04 PM, Nov 03, 2016

WALLACE, Neb. (KNOP) - UPDATE: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation after learning that a 56-year-old employee of Frenchman Valley Produce Inc. has died from head injuries received when he was struck by a support beam, on a job site near Wallace, Nebraska, last week. His employer failed to report the death to OSHA as required.
 
Preliminary reports indicate the worker was attempting to move an aeration pipe that was being lifted by a chain attached to the forks of a skid steer on Oct. 24, 2016, when he was struck by the support beam. He was part of a crew installing a conveyor system to move potatoes from the storage area into haul trucks when the fatal incident occurred.

The employee was hospitalized and is believed to have passed away from his injuries on Oct. 27, 2016.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the employee who lost his life. OSHA will conduct a thorough investigation to determine if any violations of OSHA safety standards contributed to the incident,” said Jeff Funke, OSHA’s Area Director in Omaha. “Frenchman Valley Produce notified OSHA of the occupational injury but failed to make notification of the fatality, as required.”


OSHA also has specific standards that require employers to report the death of an employee within eight hours. The agency also requires that inpatient hospitalizations, and injuries such as an amputation or the loss of an eye be reported to the agency within 24-hours. Even when a hospitalization has been reported, the company must report the subsequent death of an employee within the eight hour time frame.

An employer can report an injury or fatality using one of the following methods:

-By telephone or in person to the OSHA Area Office that is nearest to the site of the incident.
-By telephone to the OSHA toll-free central telephone number, 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742).
-By electronic submission using the reporting application located on OSHA's public Web site at www.osha.gov

During the inspection, OSHA will examine safety procedures in use on the job site. OSHA’s standards require the use of head protection and for the employer to inspect lifting chains prior to material handling operations that may expose employees to overhead hazards.

To be more effective in preventing injuries, illnesses and fatalities, employers and workers need to use a range of tools and strategies. These include education, compliance assistance and fair and strong enforcement.

ORIGINAL STORY: We are learning more details about a worker involved accident yesterday in Wallace.

Deputies say a metal beam weighing 75 to 80 pounds fell on top of a worker while he was loading vegetables at Frenchman produce.

LCSO says Michael Nelson of North Platte had a laceration on his head and was given CPR on the scene.

He was first transported to Great Plains Health then was life-flighted to CHI Good Samaritan in Kearney.

Deputies say he was in stable condition before he was life-flighted.

Hospital officials in Kearney say he is in the ICU but would not release his condition.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident as an accident. 

======


The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a southwestern Nebraska produce company after learning one of the company's workers was killed on the job last week.

The North Platte Telegraph reported last week that 56-year-old Michael Nelson was hospitalized Oct. 24 after being hit in the head by a metal beam while helping move potatoes at his job at Frenchman Valley Produce in Wallace.

OSHA says it learned that Nelson died from head injuries on Oct. 27.

The agency said Frenchman Valley did not report his death to OSHA as required.

A woman who answered the phone at Frenchman Valley Produce in Imperial said no one was available early Thursday afternoon to comment. She refused to take a message.

 

Five people were injured, including three Chicago firefighters, in a head-on crash involving a fire truck

Saturday, November 05, 2016 10:26AM
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Five people were injured, including three Chicago firefighters, in a head-on crash involving a fire truck Saturday morning, the Chicago Fire Department said.

The crash occurred on Ridge Boulevard near Loyola Avenue. The crash pinned in the driver of the other vehicle and a passenger. They were both hospitalized in serious condition.

Three firefighters were transported to the hospital and there injuries are not considered serious, the fire department said.

Worker with Dragados USA was crushed to death after a road roller overturned down an embankment in Kernersville, NC

 

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. -- NCDOT officials say a construction worker died in an accident in Kernersville on Thursday afternoon. 

It happened shortly before 11:30 a.m. on West Mountain Street where work on the Winston-Salem Northern Beltway is taking place.   
 
The North Carolina Department of Transportation is building a multi-lane freeway that loops around the northern part of Winston-Salem. The project begins at U.S. 158 southwest of Winston-Salem and ends at I-74/U.S. 311 southeast of the city. The total length of the project is 34.2 miles. 

Officials say the accident involved an overturned road roller, which is used to pack the soil or gravel down when building a new road.

The worker was a contractor for Dragados USA.

NCDOT released a statement saying, "While this is not a NCDOT employee, our hearts go out to the family of the worker who lost their life today, and to the crews at Dragados USA who lost a coworker and friend."

Kernersville Police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating the accident. 

About Dragados USA

Dragados USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dragados, was established in the United States in 2005. Since then, Dragados USA has grown steadily, successfully performing a variety of transportation, mass transit, dams, and water projects. Building on this success, Dragados' market share and financial position has consistently strengthened and grown over time.
The company is presently working on major infrastructure, marine, and dam construction and reconstruction projects, including the East Side Access in New York City; the I-287 Reconstruction, and the Reconstruction of Croton Falls Dam in New York; the Calaveras Dam outside of San Francisco, California; the Miami International Airport North Terminal Improvement project in Florida; and the Portugues Dam, the Rio Puerto Nuevo Flood Control project, and the Bechara Channel, in Puerto Rico; and the recently completed the Santan freeway (SR 202) I-10 to Gilbert Road in Arizona with our sister company Pulice Construction Co.

In addition, Dragados USA is currently at work on two major design-build projects: the P3 I-595 Corridor Improvement project in Broward County, Florida; the SR99 Bored Tunnel project in Seattle, the largest diameter tunnel in the world today.
In 2008, Dragados formally established Dragados Canada and opened its first corporate office in Toronto, Canada. Today, Dragados Canada is working on five major design-build contracts for P3 projects led by ACS: the A-30 Motoroute in Montreal; the Windsor Essex Parkway in Ontario; South Fraser Perimeter Road in Vancouver, British Columbia; and the Light Rail Systems in Ottawa and Edmonton.

Dragados’ ability to concurrently deliver multiple P3 projects underscores the depth of our resources  to execute  technically complex design-build projects.
Since 2005, Dragados has experienced a steady and sustainable growth in project revenue as well as geographic expansion across the United States and Canada. A part of that growth has come through the acquisition of Schiavone Construction Co. LLC and John P. Picone, Inc., in New York, and Pulice Construction, Inc., in Arizona. Today, Dragados USA is active in New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, California, and Washington State.