Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

August 26, 2014

Police ID contractor killed in Rumford mill accident

A Newport contractor who was killed in an accident Monday at the NewPage paper mill in Rumford has been identified by local police.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Brant Munster, 35, a worker for Pittsfield-based Somatex Crane, died after striking a roof support and falling 28 feet from a crane within the mill complex on which he was performing repairs. Police identified him on Tuesday.

Police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have been investigating the accident, which happened around 2:30 p.m. on Monday, according to the Lewiston Sun Journal.

Mill spokesman Tony Lyons told the Lewiston newspaper that NewPage has a “number of contractors that come inside of the mill as part of their job.

Munster’s fatality is the fifth to have happened at the paper mill within the last 35 years, the Sun Journal noted, with four happening under the mill’s previous owner, Mead Corp.

NewPage, which runs several paper mills across the country, is in the process of being acquired by Memphis-based Verso Paper, which runs three mills in Maine, in a $1.4 billion deal. The merger would make Verso the single largest paper company in Maine.

Sign up for Enews

Related Content

Comments

Order a PDF