Wall Collapses at Ohio Building Site; Three Hospitalized

Dec. 17--

WOODVILLE -- An industrial accident in Sandusky County Friday morning sent three men to Toledo hospitals with injuries described by authorities as serious.

The men's names had not been released Friday night.

About 9:30 a.m. Friday at the Martin Marietta Magnesia Specialties LLC plant, 755 Lime Rd., north of here, a 24-foot-tall rebar-strengthened concrete form collapsed, said Amy Louviere, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The men are steel erectors working with CCC Group Inc., of San Antonio.

A CCC Group spokesman said Friday afternoon the company was aware of the incident but declined to comment.

Two of the men were flown to the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital, and the third was taken by ambulance to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, Woodville Township Fire Chief Paul Heineman said.

The chief said that when crews arrived at the plant, only a little more than a mile from the accident scene, the men were alert and talking.

Chief Heineman said the men were very lucky and their injuries "could have been more serious."

When firefighters arrived, two of the workers had been extricated from underneath the collapsed structure, and the third was pulled out by other construction workers at the site.

The safety agency ordered the company to shut down the affected area and is sending investigators to the plant. Both Martin Marietta and the agency are investigating the incident. The company's vice president and general manager, Joe Reilly, said he did not know how long an investigation might take.

He referred all other questions to the company's corporate headquarters in Raleigh.

Martin Marietta Magnesia Specialties is part of a large quarry complex at Woodville. The company makes magnesia-based chemicals and fiber-reinforced composite materials for the transportation and military industries.

Rebar is the reinforcing steel rod used to strengthen concrete structures.

A year ago, the Woodville operation of Martin Marietta received a 35 percent job-creation tax credit, worth $236,000 for five years, from the state of Ohio for a $53 million project at the site. The company said at the time it planned to build a factory that would create 15 jobs and retain 160 at the quarry.

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