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Fellow workers showing support
Struthers
Fellow treatment-plant employees are supporting the families of the two men who were severely burned by the Struthers wastewater-treatment plant explosion on Thursday.
Plant maintenance men Ken Stiver and Gary Wilson were flown from the scene to Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh.
Employees at the plant have opened two special bank accounts to assist the victims’ families in paying the costs they’ve incurred while driving back and forth between the Valley and Pittsburgh.
The accounts are through the Struthers Federal Credit Union.
People can donate either through direct deposit or by sending money to the credit union with instructions explaining how the money is to be distributed between the accounts.
Authorities said there was a methane buildup in the room where Stiver and Wilson were working on electric wiring.
It is likely a spark from the wiring that ignited the gas around them, authorities said.
Mayor Terry Stocker on Monday said several investigative units were on the scene of the explosion Monday. The insurance company, he said, had boarded up the windows to the room to keep weather from effecting the investigation.
A spokeswoman from the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation said the agency’s investigation is ongoing and no information would be released until a report was final.
Stocker said Stiver and Wilson had underwent surgery on Saturday.
Pittsburgh Mercy still had the two listed in critical condition on Monday.
Denise Seman, the lab supervisor at the Youngstown treatment plant, sent out emails Monday to all Youngstown city employees and to treatment plant workers across Ohio with instructions on how to donate to the special accounts.
“This is a situation that could have happen to any of us,” she said. “It’s not something we ever think could happen,”