NEWTON, Mass. — Newton Police and Fire departments are investigating a deadly worksite incident where a wall broke off and crushed a 55-year-old man on Winchester Street.
A concrete foundation wall broke off and fell onto the ground. Newton Fire Chief Gino Lucchetti said the 55-year-old worker was pinned under the wall and killed.
“When we arrived, the collapse was on top of the person and we had to dig down,” Lucchetti said.
The victim is the state’s 15th fatality on a worksite this year.
Eric Guo lives across the street from where it happened.
“I’m so sad to hear that, I know everyone just rushed to come and rescue the contractor,” Guo said.
A home surveillance camera across the street in a neighbor’s house caught some of the rescue efforts.
“A guy in orange or red rushed back to that truck and then got a shovel and ran back to the backyard,” said the neighbor.
The surveillance camera also showed the worker returning to the front yard after several minutes calling 9-1-1. Then you start seeing emergency crews arriving. Fire crews said it took hours to remove the man’s body.
“What we do is a lot of shoring up and a lot of protecting and a lot of raising by the half-inch, [so] not to upset the rest of the operation worried about secondary collapse,” Lucchetti said.
The Middlesex County DA’s Office said they are trying to determine what caused the wall to break away. Nobody is living inside the home during construction. Neighbors said they know the wall had been up for several months.
“This home was under construction for 6-7 months,” a neighbor told Boston 25 News.
We reached out to the company that was working on scene there Thursday, but they have not released any statement. The workers on scene only told us they were not commenting about what happened.
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