News briefs for Oct. 28, 2002

Monday, Oct. 28, 2002 | 11:59 a.m.

Man injured in fall down shaft

A 30-year-old man was in serious condition today at a local hospital after falling Sunday into a shaft in Sandy Valley.

The Clark County Fire Department said the man fell about 35 feet and sustained several injuries, including a broken arm and broken rib cage, Bob Leinbach, fire department spokesman, said. The man was taken by helicopter to University Medical Center.

Leinbach said the man was part of a group participating in a company scavenger hunt.

Leinbach did not immediately have the man's name for release.

University Medical Center spokesman Rick Plummer said the injured man was in serious condition in the hospital's trauma intensive care unit.

The man fell when he and several other people went into a shaft marked "no," Leinbach said. A second shaft was marked "yes" as part of the hunt. No one else was injured.

Two fire crews, including a heavy rescue unit, were sent to the scene.

"The heavy rescue team did all the work," Leinbach said. "They sent a rope down the shaft and stabilized him so he wouldn't sustain any more injuries."

Two workers suffer shock

Two construction workers suffered electric shock and burns Friday when a piece of aluminum one of the men was holding touched a 7,200-volt power line, a Las Vegas Fire Department official said.

Fire crews were called about 2:30 p.m. to the house in the 800 block of Trotter Circle, near West Charleston Boulevard and Rancho Drive. The men were doing construction work on the house when the accident occurred.

Both men were taken to University Medical Center, fire officials said.

One of them, identified only as a 34-year-old man, was in critical condition in the hospital's burn center today, hospital spokesman Rick Plummer said. The other was not identified this morning.

One of the injured men fell about 20 feet from the scaffold on which the two men were standing, fire department spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

He suffered second- and third-degree burns on his chest, face and arms as well as injuries from the fall.

The second man, who appeared to be in his mid-20s, suffered burns and shock, Szymanski said. He was lying on the scaffold when rescue workers arrived.

Nevada Power Co. shut off power to the area for about 35 minutes during the rescue.

Szymanski said the men were installing the aluminum near the roof of the garage to prevent water leakage. The power lines were only about 10 feet from where the men were working.

The state Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Section is investigating the incident. The section's Chief of Administration Tom Czehowski said today under state law he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Lands bill gives college property

A bill awaiting President Bush's signature would give the Nevada State College at Henderson 23 times more land than it has now.

The Senate passed the public lands act by consent Friday. The state college's acreage will increase from 22 to 516 acres under the act.

Most of the land comes from the Bureau of Land Management. The acreage was protected as federal wildlands, but the Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002 will release that land from protection and grant it to the state.

The land is the future site of the college's permanent building. Construction will begin on the building once $10 million in private funding is raised.

The state college currently operates out of an office building at 1125 Dawson Ave. in Henderson -- space that is leased from the city of Henderson for $1 a year.

Pair sentenced over ID equipment

Two Las Vegas residents have been sentenced to 21 months in prison for possessing equipment used to make counterfeit identity documents.

Leticia Ann Hannah, 27, and Ivan Wilson, 33, were also sentenced to two years' probation and each ordered to pay a $2,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt at a Friday hearing.

Hannah and Wilson were arrested in Las Vegas in May.

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