A man was killed Friday while working at a Kennecott smelter.
Salt Lake County fire crews responded to the site off U-201 near the Tooele County line and found the man dead at the scene, Capt. Jay Ziolkowski said.
"He was found in some sort of lift about 60 to 70 feet in the air," Ziolkowski said. "We're not sure what he was doing at the time."
The man worked as a contractor and was believed to be in his 40s, Ziolkowski said. His name had not been released by press time Friday night because authorities were trying to notify family members living out of state.
He was one of 150 employees who worked at the Kennecott site for the Fluor Corp., an engineering and construction company based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., spokesman Jerry Hollaway said.
Fluor and Kennecott officials did not release details of the man's death. The Fluor employees worked at the Kennecott site performing operations and maintenance work, Hollaway said.
The company has contracted with Kennecott since the spring of 2002. Friday's accident was the first fatality of a Fluor employee at the Kennecott site, according to Hollaway. Since contracting with Kennecott, Fluor had lost just one work day — a subcontractor who suffered a broken ankle from falling on ice, Hollaway said.
"We take safety seriously. Obviously this is a tragic event and we will look very closely into the cause of it and if there is something to be learned from it then we will pass that on," Hollaway said. "At this point we're looking into the cause of the death."
Salt Lake County fire crews were called between 1 and 1:30 p.m., Ziolkowski said. After determining the man was dead, the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office was called to the scene to determine how the man died.
Part of the smelter was closed down while accident investigators looked into the incident, Kennecott spokesman Louie Cononelos said. The smelter is one of the company's production plants that turns mineral copper into a metal form, Cononelos said.
Kennecott also arranged for grief counselors to meet with employees following the incident, according to Hollaway.
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