Construction of the 38-turbine Skookumchuck Wind Energy project began last year on the Thurston-Lewis county line outside of Rainier. It’s currently being developed and assembled by RES-Americas.
A fundraising campaign has been started to help the family of Jonathan F. Stringer, a 24-year-old Chehalis man who died last week when a trench collapsed at the Skookumchuck wind energy site in Lewis County.
The GoFundMe campaign says that Stringer died while trying to rescue a co-worker.
"He was on a job site, helping save a man from a collapsing trench," the campaign reads. "He succeeded."
After the incident, the man he rescued was listed in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The Lewis County Coroner later said the cause of Stringer's death was "mechanical asphyxiation."
Stringer was born in Everett and later attended schools in Tenino, Tumwater and Rochester, according to the GoFundMe campaign.
The fundraising campaign has so far raised more than $12,000 of a $20,000 goal.
The trench collapse was reported about 11 a.m. Jan. 9.
Multiple Thurston County fire districts were dispatched to an address on Vail Road Southeast, but the work site is southeast of that location near the Thurston/Lewis county line. The 38-wind turbine project under construction is mostly in Lewis County, with some related infrastructure in Thurston County.
The Olympian reported this week that the state Department of Labor and Industries is investigating the incident.
L&I already has three open investigations with three businesses that have ties to the project: Aerotek Inc., RES America Construction Inc. and Southern Power. A fourth investigation also could be opened with an RES America subsidiary, said L&I spokesman Frank Ameduri.
The overall investigation is expected to take about six months, he said.
The wind farm is in contract to produce energy for Puget Sound Energy for 20 years, The Chronicle newspaper has reported.
