Man dies at Aspen school project

Get News Feeds

BY JOHN COLSON
pitkin county correspondent
April 30, 2008

Comments
Print Email

ASPEN — A free-standing wall fell at the old Aspen Middle School on Wednesday morning, crushing and killing a 25-year-old man working on the asbestos abatement and demolition of the building.

The man, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at approximately noon at Aspen Valley Hospital.

The accident was called in to local authorities at 9:20 a.m., by workers of the company working at the abandoned school building, ESA of Denver.

According to Jeff Lumsden, patrol director for the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, the man was working alongside his brother on the third floor of the school when the wall fell on him. Lumsden said the man’s address and other personal information were not available as of approximately 12:30 p.m.

Emergency services personnel reportedly performed cardio-pulminary resucitation techniques at the site of the accident and in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, but to no avail.

Aspen Schools Superintendent Diana Sirko said the wall was “the last free-standing wall to come out in the old lockers area” on that floor. She said it was not a weight-bearing wall.

The deceased was part of a crew working to remove toxic asbestos from the old school, which stands right next to a new, replacement school completed last year.

The original plans called for the old school to have been demolished, and replaced by an open playground area. But officials discovered last year that the building contained vermiculite, a naturally occuring mineral that in some cases contains asbestos and has been linked to lung disease.