By MONROE ROARK
Staff Writer

The tragic death of a construction worker last week is the fourth accident at Peachtree City building sites in the past three months, according to a city building official.

Safety guidelines were reviewed at Thursday's quarterly builders' meeting, during which time building official Thomas Carty spoke briefly about the accident that took the life of Michael Phipps.

No official cause of death has been announced, but it was suspected that Phipps died accidently after inhaling fumes from a waterproofing material he was spraying on a foundation.

The lot where the death occurred, on Newport Drive in the Point on Lake Kedron subdivision, was closed by Carty's office immediately afterward.

“The only thing we can do is learn from these experiences,” Carty said at the builders' luncheon, just before pausing a moment to remember Phipps' family, which included a wife and three children.

Carty said that July 12, when the accident occurred, was to have been the last day on the job for Phipps, who was planning to become a full-time preacher.

The product Phipps was using, known as Sunflex, was “extremely flammable” and “in mist form,” according to Carty. Anyone using such a product should carefully read the instructions beforehand, and in this case, a respirator should be worn.

Another important characteristic of Sunflex is the fact that it is heavier than air, which was doubly important where Phipps was working, in a shaft about 10 feet below the ground below where the front porch of the structure will eventually be located.

“If the material he's spraying is heavier than air, where is the air going? Out of the hole,” said Carty. “You can't breathe something heavier than air.”

Carty announced that in the future, whenever he finds workers spraying such materials without respirators, he will shut down the job site until appropriate measures are taken.

Fortunately, this has been the only fatality stemming from accidents at building sites this year, although a city inspector is still recovering from a fall through a roof due to a poorly built pull-down staircase.

Another accident involving a pull-down staircase took place when two firefighters climbed on it at once to fight a fire in an attic. While that overloaded the stairs, Carty acknowledged, the entire assembly came down, which should not have happened.

“Install them exactly according to the instructions,” he said.

City engineer Troy Besseche reviewed guidelines for properly installing and using scaffolds, which have accounted for three injuries this year on city work sites.

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