Rescue team lowers injured worker from Wynn resort

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | 11:16 a.m.

Gaming mogul Steve Wynn today defended the safety procedures of his Wynn Las Vegas construction project, where firefighters in the last three weeks twice had to rescue workers from hundreds of feet above the Strip.

The most recent rescue was late Tuesday night.

"You have to remember this is the world's largest on-going construction project," Wynn said. "You have 2,680 workers on the job, many working 600 feet off the ground. Every construction job is dangerous."

Wynn said he was satisfied with the safety measures that are in place to address the dangers. He said the project remains on schedule and there are no plans to modify work procedures.

The Clark County Fire Department's heavy rescue unit was called to the site at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday to rescue an injured construction worker from the top of Wynn's new resort, Capt. Jeff Ruby said.

Wynn said there have been no construction deaths on the Wynn Las Vegas project, though one worker died of a heart attack and a 54-year-old welder was injured in the early stages of the project when a metal staircase fell and struck him, Wynn said.

There was one construction-related death at The Mirage when it was being built and the same at the Bellagio, Wynn recalled.

In Tuesday's accident, Wynn said, the worker was injured when a guideline pin holding a cement hose "sheared off" as it was being moved by a crane into place to pour cement, causing the hose to hit the man "with a glancing blow."

The worker complained of neck and back pain, firefighters said.

The name of the crane company that was involved in the incident was not immediately released.

Wynn said the injured man was treated and released from the University Medical Center. The worker's name was not released by Wynn, Metro Police or fire department officials. The man is in his 30s, firefighters said.

During the rescue, the worker was placed on a backboard and into a rescue basket that was lowered to the ground using a crane.

Firefighter-paramedic Ron Lupton rode down with the injured man.

"He talked to me the whole way down," Lupton said

"It was a real quick response," Ruby said of the rescue took about half an hour. "Everything went off without a hitch."

When told of the fire department's account of the rescue, Wynn said he wondered why the worker was not taken down the construction elevator.

Tom Czehowski, chief administrative officer and spokesman for the Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement Section, was out of town today and not reachable for comment, his secretary said. OSHES is the state agency that investigates such incidents.

The general contractor for the project is Marnell Corrao, a large Las Vegas construction firm that built the Bellagio, Mirage and other major properties. Attempts to reach a spokesman for Marnell Corrao this morning were not successful.

It was the third time in less than three weeks that an injured worker had to be lowered by crane from hundreds of feet above the Las Vegas Strip.

A crane operator had to be lowered 500 feet from the Wynn Las Vegas project on Feb. 25. In that incident, Jacob Raines, 29, of Jake's Crane Rigging and Transport International, told paramedics that he had suffered neck and back injuries when he had fallen. He was taken to University Medical Center, treated and released.

Then on March 1 the rescue team responded to an injured 31-year-old construction worker more than 300 feet off the ground from a roof of a tower being added to the Bellagio. The man fell about 20 feet to a concrete panel while working with rebar as he was setting concrete from atop the tower. His name was not released. He worked for Marnell Corrao.

Southern Nevada has had a number of fatal construction accidents megaresorts.

In December 1998, a 24-year-old worker was killed at The Venetian. In December 1994, a 320-foot crane fell and killed three men at the construction site of a 28-story addition to the Riverside in Laughlin.

In 1992 two workers were killed at the Luxor during construction of the pyramid-shaped resort.