The Adams County Health Department vaccinated 32 people against COVID-19 on Friday. It was a deluge of new patients compared to July, where some days passed without any vaccinations in a county where 70% of people have not gotten a coronavirus shot.

“I think everybody should get the shot,” said Wilma Miller, one of the vaccine recipients, on Friday. “I should have a long time ago, but I didn’t.”

Her fear of the vaccine, which has been safely administered to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, was so intense she didn’t get it even after catching COVID-19 with her husband in November. It took a friend’s intervention to convince her that she needed additional protection from the virus.

“I made her a promise,” Miller said. “And I said yeah. So we came and got the shot today.”

Health commissioner Dr. William Hablitzel said he’s optimistic about the future of the vaccine in Adams County, where he said he sees one-time vaccine resisters like Miller being moved by the pleas — and sometimes the close calls — of friends and family.

“In a small community, part of it is some of the powerful stories we hear of someone we know whose family, entire family, was sick, and one member of that family became critically ill and wound up on a ventilator in the hospital,” he said. “Those are powerful stories."

Others were motivated by an incentive offered by the Ohio government: A $100 gift card to Walmart for getting the shot. Some people in line with Miller said it was the only reason they’d come.

Whatever the reason, Hablitzel said, he welcomes it and hopes the enthusiasm for vaccination will spread.

Even with numbers improving, Adams County is the second least-vaccinated county in Ohio. Only Holmes County, where the Ohio Department of Health reports over 80% of people have not received a shot, is less protected from the novel coronavirus.

CINCINNATI —

The Surfside condo collapse is bringing back memories of a recent collapse here in Greater Cincinnati.

The Killen Generating Station along U.S. 52 in Adams County was set for demolition, but it collapsed during the process trapping five men inside. Only three survived.

The men and women who go into situations like this are a special group of people who often are working through harsh conditions to try and save lives.

Cincinnati Fire Department Operations Chief Tom Lakamp is also the Commissioner for our areas Urban Search and Rescue Team. He says one of the biggest issues they have is holding his team back, even after long shifts, as they try to grind out every moment to bring a victim home.

“Nothing moves fast,” Lakamp said.

Lakamp knows scenes like in Miami all too well.

“There's always a hope until you've exhausted any and all areas where you think there might be a void for survival,” he said.

His team is made up of about 125 firefighters from multiple departments across the region. They get the call to save lives in devastating situations.

“The key is having really good experts with you. They probably have a plan A, a plan B, a plan C, a plan D they are starting to implement simultaneously,” Lakamp said.

In December 2020, his team responded to a deadly collapse of that old Killen plant. Their quick response and planning paid off.

“At the Killen collapse, we were able to rescue one of the workers within the first three hours to make that rescue. That does a lot for morale,” Lakamp said.

Lakamp says the tragic incidents of Miami and Adams County are different because of the construction methods. Each has a very different possibility of open areas for survival. But the bottom line remains the same, the men and women on these teams are putting their tools and training into action to reunite families.

“What you see on television and what you've been able to follow, they are coming in from the bottom and they're also coming in from the top. They are doing whatever they can to give anybody the opportunity to survive,” Lakamp said.

You can hear our full conversation on the beyond the studio podcast which is out right now. Click here.

CINCINNATI — A Detroit-based demolition company is facing fines of $14,475 for the Dec. 9 collapse of the Killen power plant in Adams County, where two men were killed and three people were injured.

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration proposed two separate fines on Jan. 25 and Feb. 2 against Adamo Demolition Company, which is contesting both citations on which the fines are based, according to OSHA records.

Adamo declined to be interviewed, saying OSHA is conducting an ongoing investigation. But it released a statement to address some of WCPO's questions.

"The safety and well-being of our employees is paramount," the statement said. "If any employee ever felt unsafe at a particular job site, we would address that issue immediately and responsibly to make certain their concerns were resolved to their satisfaction."

The WCPO 9 I-Team has been investigating the Killen collapse by talking to current and former Adamo employees and their family members, seeking records from government agencies and researching a 2015 demolition project in which Adamo’s former CEO was fatally injured. Here is a summary of what we learned:

• OSHA’s proposed fines in Adams County are roughly half of what the agency originally proposed for the 2015 incident.
• Two lawsuits alleged the 2015 incident was caused by improper cuts to the metal support structure of a coal-conveyor bridge that collapsed, causing one death and one serious injury. The complaints, which were later settled, alleged a lack of oversight on the project.
• One former Adamo employee told the I-Team the Killen project wasn’t properly supervised. One of the men killed in the collapse told his fiancée that cuts to the Killen support structure were not inspected as required by Adamo’s handbook.

“Adamo denies that its rules and procedures concerning the verification of cuts was not followed,” wrote Christian Hauser, a Troy, Mich. attorney who represents the company. “To the contrary, Adamo utilizes a detailed and comprehensive process regarding structural cuts to the steel in advance of blasting. There was no lack of supervision with respect to any component of this project.”

Inside the Killen plant

Former Adamo employee Labe Griffith did not think the project was well supervised.

“Absolutely not,” Griffith said. One supervisor "wouldn’t even get out of the truck. He’s physically not able. He would stay in the truck and look at things from afar. No, it was not properly supervised.”

The supervisor declined to answer the I-Team's questions, referring our call to the company.

Griffith said he worked as a laborer at the Killen site from September to mid-November, when he was laid off. He said there was a lot of pressure to keep the job on schedule.

"I felt unsafe every day," he said. “I was never so relieved in my life to be laid off from a job.”

Jamie Fitzgerald also had safety concerns about the Killen plant before he perished in the collapse, according to Fitzgerald’s fiancée, Lora Conley.

“No one was inspecting the guys before they made these cuts, like it was supposed to, like it was in their handbook from Adamo,” Conley said. “I do know that because Jamie had made numerous comments about that.”

Zoom interview March 29, 2021

Power plants tough to demolish

Demolition contractors make cuts to weaken the support structure of buildings before using explosives to drop them safely, said Thomas Eagar, a professor of materials engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The goal is to make debris fall inward, toward the center of the building site, Eagar said. Power plants are particularly tricky because they have large, high roofs and different kinds of support structures for different parts of the building.

“It’s a controlled explosion, but it’s also a very sophisticated structural engineering problem, where you’ve taken out all of the extra safety beams and columns and have just enough to hold the building up until you set off the charges,” Eagar said. “Unfortunately, there’s many things that can go wrong. That’s why you have to have competent supervision.”

Litigants cited lapses in project oversight in two separate lawsuits sparked by the 2015 collapse of a conveyor bridge at the Muskingum River power plant in Southeastern Ohio. In a 2016 complaint, a Michigan man who worked for Adamo, Ahmed Hussein, alleged he suffered “serious and permanent injuries” at Muskingum River. Hussein's lawsuit said he made cuts to the conveyor bridge “as he had been directed by” the plant’s owner and Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp., an Adamo subcontractor.

In 2017, the widow of John Adamo claimed her husband was killed in the bridge collapse because “Hussein made straight line cuts instead of the vee-shaped cuts typically used to weaken a structure for this type of explosive demolition.” The cuts led to the “premature collapse” of the structure, Carolyn Adamo alleged. She accused Dykon of “failing to properly supervise those, including Mr. Hussein, making the cuts and/or other steps to weaken the structure.”

Dykon answered Hussein’s allegations in 2017 by arguing Adamo’s contracts with the plant’s owner, Muskingum River Development LLC, made Adamo “solely responsible for the safety of their employees” and for “all means and methods of performing the work,” including “the effects of demolition preparations… on the structural integrity of the coal conveyor bridge.”

The cases ended with a 2018 settlement for Hussein and 2019 settlement for Carolyn Adamo.

Adamo violation history

OSHA issued three serious violations and one deemed “other than serious” against Adamo in the Muskingum River collapse. Those citations resulted in a proposed fine of $28,000, which was later reduced to $12,500 in a formal settlement with OSHA. Records indicate 10 people were exposed to hazardous conditions in the incident, which received a “gravity” rating of 10 out of 10. OSHA rates the gravity of violations based on the severity and likelihood of injury or illness due to the alleged violation. It's one of the biggest factors impacting the size of fines.

In the Killen collapse, OSHA has issued one serious and one other-than-serious violation so far, resulting in proposed fines totaling $14,475. The agency wouldn’t explain the reasoning behind the proposed fines or release copies of the citations. Records indicate four people were exposed to hazardous conditions at Killen and the Dec. 9 incident scored a gravity rating of 5 out of a possible `10.

Eagar found it troubling that Adamo had two fatal demolition accidents in five years.

“If you’ve run into problems in the past you should be extra careful in the future,” he said. “It doesn’t sound to me that these people put the controls in place to have a quality program to make sure they wouldn’t have these types of accidents again.”

Conley hopes OSHA’s final report explains what caused the collapse.

“I just want answers," she said. "I want to know why this happened. I want my kids to know that Jamie did everything he was supposed to do and that he wanted out of there.”

Provided, John Fitzgerald

Adamo declined to answer questions about similarities between the Muskingum River collapse and problems at the Killen plant. Its attorney’s statement asked for patience among those looking for answers.

“While we recognize there is a great deal of sorrow in the community due to this accident, it is important that this does not lead to speculation or a disregard for the truth,” Hauser wrote. “Adamo takes this situation very seriously and we are committed to working and cooperating with OSHA as the investigation continues into the events that led to this terrible accident.”

WEST UNION, Ohio —

On the sidewalk surrounding the Adams County courthouse in West Union, Jason Fultz said he's okay with not being vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I've never really worried about it and then you know, I've been around people a lot and I've always had a good immune system and everything," Fultz said.

Data published by The Health Collaborative shows the way Fultz feels is echoed throughout Adams County.

Of the eight counties in southwest Ohio, Adams County is currently last in the race to vaccinate eligible residents, with 22 percent having had a first dose while 16 percent are fully vaccinated.

"Demand has certainly slowed," Adams County Health Commissioner Dr. William Hablitzel said.

Hablitzel said a few weeks ago, vaccines were in high demand. That's no longer the case.

"I think there is more hesitancy in rural counties," he said.

Warren County, northwest of Adams County, is leading southwest Ohio's vaccination race. While parts of Warren County are also rural, 43 percent of residents there have gotten a first dose and 33 percent are fully vaccinated.

"Knowing that people have responded really well in Warren County has been great," Warren County Health Commissioner Duane Stansbury said. "We want to keep that momentum going as best we can."

Stansbury said one reason the vaccination rate is high in his county is that it's home to a lot of health professionals.

Back in Adams County, Hablitzel hopes vaccine momentum shifts in a way that will prompt more people to get a dose of COVID-19 protection.

"We'll keep plugging along. We have it available. People can walk in and we'll accommodate them," Hablitzel said.

But Hablitzel doesn't think his county's vaccine rate will jump significantly anytime soon. For him, that's a sobering reality since he said more people in Adams County now know someone who's either had COVID-19 and managed to survive or someone who's lost the fight. He believes a number of factors are suppressing vaccination rates in Adams County, including: concerns about the J&J vaccine pause, transportation issues and, in some cases, politics.