Accident At W-L Construction Site
A mishap occurred last week at the construction site of the new Washington-Lee High School that briefly endangered the life of one of the workers.
The incident occurred Friday afternoon around 1 p.m. According to a Fire Department account, workers on the roof of the new school were loading materials onto a hoist when its operator mistakenly started moving it.
Most of the workers were able to get out of the hoist but one worker was injured when the transporter's door slammed shut on his back.
Battalion Chief William McKay, who was one of the responders to the accident, noted that the Fire Department's account of the incident is muddled due to an inability to communicate with eye witnesses.
"[It] was all very confused when we arrived," he said, "Because none of the people on the roof that we were talking to spoke English."
The incident garnered an overwhelming response from the Fire Department. No less than 12 emergency vehicles and several dozen firemen and EMTs were at the scene on North Stafford Street south of 15th Street.
McKay said that this response was standard operating procedure for the department.
"Any incident involving a construction site gets the technical rescue response," he said, "because those types of sites have very different access and removal [capabilities]."
William Thomas, a Deputy Fire Marshall who was another responder on the scene, said that the technical team was called out because "You never know. If that hoist was not there, we would have had to use our ladder."
After the EMTs stabilized the injured man, whose identity was not divulged due to federal medical privacy laws, he was brought down in the hoist and taken to a hospital.
The incident is now being investigated by the Arlington County Building Inspection Service and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
— David Schultz
Teen Summer Job Fair
The 11th annual Arlington Teen Summer Expo will be held later this month.
The event, scheduled for April 28 at the Arlington Career Center, is designed to help find local teenagers employment during their summer vacations.
"Teen Expo gets bigger and better each year," Nadia Conyers, coordinator of the event, said. "This year students can find unique opportunities from summer camp jobs to government jobs."
While the Expo is designed for teenagers looking for jobs, it can also be useful for employers looking to fill a vacancy.
Last year, more than 2,000 jobs were posted by more than 200 local businesses, not-for-profit agencies and citizens.
Olivia Payton, training coordinator with Red Top Cab Company, said in a statement that she "hired five teens at last year's Expo… One teen stayed to work weekends during her school year. All of my hires from the 2006 Expo will return this summer."
Representatives from Starbucks, the Red Cross, Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and many others will be attending this year's event.
The Expo will last from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring copies of their resume.
Correction
In the "Week In Arlington" column in the April 4 issue of the Arlington Connection, the wrong time and date for Arlington County’s first light bulb giveaway was listed. The giveaway was held on Tuesday, April 10 at the NRECA Building located at 4301 Wilson Boulevard from 7:30 to 9 p.m.