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3 county workers injured
By D.A. WILKINSON
DAMASCUS
Routine maintenance at a Mahoning County Sanitary Engineer Department facility went wrong about 9:50 a.m. Tuesday and sent three workers to area hospitals.
William Coleman, the office manager for the sanitary engineer department, said one worker was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown by helicopter. A second worker was taken to St. Elizabeth’s hospital by vehicle, and the third worker was taken to Salem Community Hospital. All three men are veteran workers.
Coleman would not provide the names of the men.
The county has had a sewer facility in Damascus for many years.
Coleman said, “They were making routine maintenance.”
That included using water to clean out the pipes to prevent clogs.
John Bricker, the chief of the Damascus Volunteer Fire Department, said that a county worker was blowing out a sewer line when a nozzle came off a high- pressure hose and caused the injuries.
The men were familiar with their job, Coleman said.
The men were using either a 1.25- or 1.5-inch hose that could provide up to a 1,000 pounds of pressure per inch.