Construction crews had doused minor fires on the Liberty Bridge twice in the previous three days before a major fire on Sept. 2 closed the bridge for 24 days, according to documents obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The 155 pages of documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that hours before the major fire occurred, a safety official for Joseph B. Fay Co. removed an employee assigned to watch for fire in the area where the major blaze occurred. Safety officials also failed to report the previous fires to their supervisors or to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is paying for the $80 million bridge rehabilitation project.

Safety experts said the minor fires never would have happened if Fay had followed proper safety procedures, and after they happened, the company should have taken steps to improve procedures to avoid the major fire that almost caused the bridge to collapse.

What this says to me is the safety hierarchy there wasnt working in a collaborative manner, said Frank Burg, a registered professional safety engineer and certified safety professional in Woodstock, Ill. Mr. Burg spent 18 years as an OSHA inspector and has operated a private firm, Accident Prevention Corp., for 22 years.

If they arent reporting these near misses, theres a problem in their safety procedures.

Fay has paid a reduced fine of $7,500 for what OSHA termed a serious safety violation, not protecting flammable material, and has adjusted its fire safety procedures. The bridge rehabilitation project is expected to resume in earnest in March once permanent repairs are made.

According to a statement he filed with OSHA, Les Carpenter, senior superintendent with Fay, said he was not aware of previous fires that had occurred on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. In those incidents, hot slag from a metal-cutting operation on the top deck fell onto a tarp surrounding a construction deck two levels below and caused minor fires that employees put out with hoses at the site.

After the first minor fire, safety officials assigned an employee to the lower deck to watch for fires. On Sept. 2, hours before the major fire was discovered at 12:55 p.m., Mr. Carpenter said he reassigned the fire watch from the lower level to other duties.

Mr. Carpenter said the immediate supervisor never explained why he wanted a fire watch on the lower platform and he didnt ask. He reassigned the employee because through three earlier phases of the project an employee assigned to fire watch duties on the upper deck was responsible for watching the lower decks as well.

Fay safety coordinator Zachery Reefer, who said he was at the job site one to three days a week, and safety director Dave Maloney, who oversees safety at all Fay job sites, also didnt know the minor fires had occurred.

That [minor fire] is a pretty serious incident, Mr. Burg said. There has to be reporting on that to top management.

Jim Foringer, PennDOTs assistant district executive for construction, said Fay didnt report the minor fires to PennDOT, either, because they were quickly handled by employees at the site. PennDOT conducted a safety review immediately after the major fire, he said, but Fay changed its procedures to have fire safety responsibilities assigned to a foreman at the site before PennDOT made its recommendations.

PennDOT is satisfied with that change and will review safety procedures as normal before construction resumes, Mr. Foringer said.

All three men said the companys normal practice was to remove flammable material from areas below a metal-cutting operation because of openings in the bridge deck that could allow hot slag to fall below. Crews placed plywood on the deck to try to cover holes but also were supposed to cover with Kevlar any flammable material below that couldnt be removed.

Plastic ventilation pipe on the lower deck was left uncovered on Sept. 2 and ignited in a major fire 30 to 45 minutes after crews had quit a metal-cutting operation. The fire burned so hot that it buckled a key 30-foot steel chord that supports a large portion of the bridges weight.

David Gardner, a Pittsburgh-based civil engineering expert who specializes in construction safety for Robson Forensic in Lancaster, Pa., said fires should not occur even when crews are working with live flames if companies follow safety procedures established by OSHA and the National Fire Protection Association. When he worked on a similar project on the Fort Pitt Bridge in 2002-03, he said, the only fire that occurred was an arson set near the Fort Pitt Tunnel.

Im going to say that should not happen minor fires should not occur occasionally, Mr. Gardner said. I would think in a job as confining as the Liberty Bridge that the safety measures to make sure there are no fires would be really strong.

Fay officials werent available to be interviewed about the OSHA documents but issued this statement:

Individual OSHA interviews are a portion of an investigation and need to be taken in context with all the findings. The final determination was based on the entirety of information collected and verified by the compliance officer.

The OSHA investigation is closed. The bridge was reopened and safe to traffic months ago and not one person was injured during the entire incident. Modifications have been made to procedures to assure no future situations occur.

OSHA initially fined Fay $11,224, nearly the maximum for a serious incident, but regional director Christopher Robinson said that was cut to $7,500 based on Fays cooperation and previously strong safety record. He said despite working with open flames, construction fires shouldnt occur.

There was a finding of a lack of a real strong violation history, so the fine was reduced, Mr. Robinson said. Ideally, [these types of fires] shouldnt happen. Its certainly not something we like to hear.

Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1470.

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Review shows Liberty Bridge had 2 minor fires before major incident closed the bridge - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette