NEGAUNEE TOWNSHIP, MI— A contractor died while working on the UPPCO Hoist powerhouse in Negaunee Township Friday.
The Marquette County Sheriff’s Office Technical Rescue Unit 131 was dispatched around 11 a.m. for a confined-space rescue inside a penstock.
Deputies say two contractors were applying a coating inside the penstock when their air monitors apparently notified them that conditions were unsafe. Both started moving toward the access hatch.
One of the contractors made it to the hatch, but the other slid about 85 feet down the inclined pipe and had to be extracted. They were pronounced dead at the scene. The first contractor was taken to UPHS-Bell and is in stable condition.
The Sheriff’s Office says this is preliminary information and the investigation is ongoing.
Assisting in the incident were Marquette County Search and Rescue, the Negaunee Township Fire Department, Marquette City Fire Department, and UPHS-EMS.
The name of the decedent is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
