Staff Reports
HOMERVILLE — Three utility workers spent four hours trapped in a water tower on Monday night.
At 5:20 p.m. three workers with Utility Services out of Perry, Ga. fell while sandblasting inside of a 150 foot, 500,000 gallon water tower in Clinch Industrial Park West, said Albert Thornton, Homerville City Manager.
First reports indicated that the workers fell between 20 to 50 feet off of a work platform inside the water storage tower. Two of the workers sustained injuries from the fall.
First responders from Clinch County and Lanier County received assistance from Georgia Search and Rescue Task Force Two based out of Valdosta to extricate the workers.
Valdosta Fire Department Captain and GSAR Task Force Two Leader, Ken Gallagher said it was determined that lowering the injured workers 100 feet down the middle pipe of the water tower was the best way to proceed.
The first injured worker, Jose Alfredo Suarez-Torres, 24, from South Carolina was out of the tower by 8:50 p.m. and Miguel Morano, 32, was lowered an hour later to waiting paramedics who transported the pair to South Georgia Medical Center.
Torres suffered a broken arm and Morano broken ribs. The third worker was uninjured.
Gallagher said this was the first deployment of the task force and they were lucky it was a rescue and not a recovery. The 150 foot tower was undergoing regular maintenance, a task that was on schedule to be completed in a few weeks.
Photographer Paul Leavy contributed information for this story. For more photos, visit www.valdostadailytimes.com
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