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Last Worker Found From December Power Plant Collapse In Adams County

killen station power plant
Courtesy of WCPO
The Killen Station first came online in 1982 and was shut down in 2018.

Updated: Jan. 8, 2021, 12:18 p.m.

The last man missing from the December collapse of the former Killen power plant in Adams County has been found. 

"The loved ones and immediate family of Jamie Fitzgerald have been notified that he has be located...," read a Friday statement from Adamo Group, the demolition company hired to take down the plant. "Crews from the Adamo Group are currently working to safely recover him."

Search and rescue crews have been at the site of the former power plant looking for trapped workers since Dec. 9, 2020.

Sheriff's officials say the collapse was reported around 8:30 a.m. that morning. Three workers were found and taken to area hospitals. At the time, two others were unaccounted for. One of the two, Doug Gray, was found Dec. 13.

"This (search and rescue) will be nonstop until they find the missing, whether it's one day, two days, a week," Adams County Sheriff Kim Rogers told our news partner WCPO at the time. "They will be here until they find these people."

The power plant was operated by Dayton Power and Light beginning in 1982 and shut down in 2018. It is currently owned by Commercial Liability Partners, which, according to its website, specializes in "repositioning of underutilized, distressed, or environmentally-challenged properties." including old power station sites. The company is also working on Killen's sister station, the nearby J.M. Stuart Station, and the former Beckjord power plant, near New Richmond, Ohio.

Those trapped were part of a demolition crew for the building, which was scheduled to be taken down Monday, Dec. 14, WCPO reports.

Killen Station had a coal-fired unit and an oil-fired unit. 

The site is east of Manchester, Ohio, along the Ohio River.

This story was first published on Dec. 9, 2020 and has been updated. 

Bill Rinehart started his radio career as a disc jockey in 1990. In 1994, he made the jump into journalism and has been reporting and delivering news on the radio ever since.