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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Victim in tower collapse was a California resident

Advertiser Staff

The man killed in the collapse of a cooling tower at Campbell Industrial Park Saturday was identified as Juan Navarro, a 54-year-old El Monte, Calif., resident.

Navarro suffered multiple crush injuries due to the collapse of the water tower, the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office said.

The man was part of a crew hired by Hawaiian Cement to dismantle the unused cooling tower. The tower collapsed at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Navarro was found dead at 3:15 p.m., the fire department said.

Another worker escaped unharmed.

The men were employees of A.G. Transport of California, specialists in industrial demolition, and were working here with San Construction of Hawaii.

The tower consisted of six columns surrounded by a steel support structure. The decades-old tower was being "pre-weakened" by the two workers when it crashed, firefighters said.