Incident Report Subject: Firewater Tank Collapse Kills 2 Fire Protection Engineers Date of Email report: Thu 14/04/2011 Report Detail:
The accident happened at about 2 p.m. Thursday at the former Georgia Pacific plant, located at 400 State Road 70, said sheriff's spokeswoman Nell Hays. The Highlands County Sheriff's Office, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Florida Department of Environmental Protection were each investigating. Jon Martinez and Jason Steele, who both worked for United Fire Protection in St. Petersburg, were reportedly fixing a pump inside a concrete block building, adjacent to the water tank when it ripped apart, authorities said. When the tank burst, it released a rush of water that caused the building to collapse, trapping the victims inside, authorities added It was previously reported by some news agencies that the pumps in the pump house building were used to fill the water tank. However, Highlands County Fire Operations Supervisor Jimmy Branca said Thursday, in his opinion these pumps were designed to pull water from the water tank for the fire suppression systems to the 200,000-square-foot former plant. The water tank was filled elsewhere from a well, he said. James Harris, Highlands County Fire Services supervisor, said the building had been vacant for a while. "Before it could be leased the fire protection system had to be checked out," Harris said. "They needed to replace the pump." The pump house had two pumps, which was a requirement by Georgia Pacific, but one was torn out to see if it could be rebuilt, and the one they were replacing was going to be the primary and only pump, Harris added. Inspection records on the tank are with Georgia Pacific, Harris said. Those are usually done by the sprinkler system contractors, but while the county inspects their records, it does not keep copies, he said. An attorney for the owner of the property, Leo Bruso, said the property had been purchased in October and they were getting ready to put it up for lease. "We wish our condolences," said Aram Megerian of the law firm of Cole Scott Kissane in Tampa. "We don't know much yet. We are working with authorities to see what went wrong." Megerian did not know how old the water tank was and how much water it was holding. "We have different experts looking at it," he said. Branca, who along with a technical rescue team responded, said the water tank was badly mangled. "The wall of the (roughly 1,200-square-foot) concrete block building that was 15 to 20 feet away facing the tank, was taken out," he said. "We went in there and had to shore up the building to make safer the recovery effort." Highlands County Emergency Medical Services Director Steve Coltharp, with the technical rescue team, said Friday the men were pronounced dead at the scene by the first EMS unit to arrive. "We set up for a helicopter, but then canceled," he said. United Fire President Chad Norris, who was at the scene Friday, was grim-faced over the loss of his workers. "It was a terrible tragedy," he said. "Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family of the victims. We are fully cooperating with the authorities in their investigation." An investigator with Occupational Safety & Health Administration did not want to comment stating the agency was sending out news updates. Investigators with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Emergency Response were also present. Teresa Zilko-Miller, DEP's emergency response specialist, said the force of the water caused a diesel tank to tip over. She was there to find out how much diesel had spilled and estimated that 100-200 gallons of it had spilled. Martinez, 34, who grew up in Town 'N Country and attended Tampa Bay Tech, moved back to the Tampa area six months ago. His mother and sister live in the area. "He was a good guy," said Candy Candales of Carrollwood, who was Martinez's former sister-in-law. "He was a family guy. He loved his kids. He was a good person." Martinez's mother in law, Beverly Jones, said he was living in Georgia with her daughter. He moved back to the Tampa area because the couple had separated, she said. "He'll be missed," Jones said. "He has a daughter who will never remember him." Martinez has a 2-year-old daughter with his current wife. He has a 14-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son from a previous marriage, Jones said. |
