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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration began interviews Monday with about 20 people who work at the 100-story Moundsville smokestack where a weekend fire left a worker from Indiana missing and presumed dead.
A representative of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers was at American Electric Power's Kammer-Mitchell plant for the interviews and to await retrieval of the lost worker, assistant business agent Jim Dingess said Monday.
The interviews were expected to last all day, Dingess said. AEP, meanwhile, told the union it would shut construction operations down for at least two days to ensure workers' safety. Electricity production continued unaffected.
State Police on Monday identified the missing man as Gerald Talbott, 27, who had been in West Virginia for only a week. Talbott had relocated from an unknown town in Indiana and settled in the Marshall County community of Mozart with two small children and a pregnant wife, Sgt. James Merrill said.
Talbott and the other men worked for Pullman Power LLC of Kansas City, Mo., which did not immediately confirm the missing man's identity. The crew had been installing fiberglass lining inside the stack.
Three co-workers -- David Earley II, 29, of New Matamoras, Ohio; Jay McDonald, 59, of Kanab, Utah; and Timothy Wells, 36, of New Martinsville -- were trapped above a giant chimney of flames for two hours Saturday night before a dramatic helicopter rescue. Talbott apparently fell into the tower when his cable broke.
Officials have not yet determined the cause of the fire, and the union declined to speculate.
"It's too early for anybody to point fingers on what happened there," Dingess said. "It's going to take time to even make the thing safe for people to even work there."
AEP spokeswoman Carmen Prati-Miller said crews were using a crane, video cameras and high-intensity lighting to gauge conditions inside the 1,000-foot-tall stack Monday. That will help Pullman determine when it's safe to remove Talbott.
Although the interior of the smokestack has been destroyed, Prati-Miller said it's too soon to tell if the thick-walled concrete structure itself will have to be demolished.
"We don't expect that," she said, "but it's not been definitely determined."
Columbus, Ohio-based AEP is upgrading the coal-fired power plant to bring it into compliance with federal air pollution regulations.
A search of OSHA's database Monday found no citations or fines at the smokestack, but one of the workers who was trapped Saturday had apparently expressed concern about his safety before the fire.
David Earley II told his father that a hoist used for materials and workers had no brakes and was held aloft only by its gears.
"There needs to be a safe alternative to get people down," his father, David Earley, told The Associated Press. "My son asked for that."
Earley said his son, who was terrified of heights, usually ran equipment from the ground but was told Saturday to go to the top of the stack.
"They told him if he didn't get up there, he would be fired," the elder Earley said. "My son didn't have an air pack or safety harness. He called down and said he needed a safety harness, and someone sent one up. All them boys would be dead if they didn't have a safety harness."
Prati-Miller said she was unaware of any of those concerns and could not comment.
A spokeswoman for Pullman Power declined to discuss the allegations.
"As a matter of policy, we don't comment on rumors and have not verified this claim to be accurate," Pullman spokeswoman Kimberly Kayler told The Associated Press by e-mail Monday.
"Right now, our primary concern is for the welfare of Pullman Power employees and their families," she said. "We're doing all that we can given this situation, and everything else is really peripheral at this time."
Earley said his son and the other workers "held on to each other and prayed" while awaiting rescue.
"They thought the stack was coming down. The air luckily enough was blowing some of the smoke away from them and they could get some fresh air," he said. "They had to keep putting the fire out on each other because their clothes would catch fire."
Earley said his son's stomach and thighs were burned through three layers of clothes.
David Earley II was the only one with a working radio and talked to Talbott "right until his last breath," Earley Sr. said.
"He can't talk to me about what that boy told him," he said. "David is OK physically. Mentally he's a basket case. He just keeps crying."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
