Six months after a wall under construction at a plumbing distributor's branch location collapsed and killed one masonry worker and injured four others, three businesses have been cited and fined by the state of North Carolina.
A citation notice from the North Carolina Department of Labor states that distributor Hajoca Corp. and Robert Crawford Masonry have each been cited with one alleged willful serious violation and one alleged serous violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina, with each company fined $30,800. The department also cited Pinnacle Grading Co. Inc. with one alleged serious violation of the act and fined $2,800.
According to the City of Hendersonville, on the morning Jan. 13, a retaining wall under construction collapsed in the parking lot of Hajoca's Showroom in Hendersonville, NC, trapping five contracted masonry crew members underneath. A news release said one crew member who escaped with minor injuries relayed that four additional members were working with him. Emergency personnel extricated three of them, followed by the man, age 37, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two of the injured men were med-flighted to hospitals, and one was transported to a hospital by ambulance.
Hajoca brands itself as the United States’ largest privately-held wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating and industrial supplies. It’s also one of the oldest — founded in 1858. Based in Lafayette Hill, PA just northwest of Philadelphia, the company has approximately 3,500 employees.
