In a devastating incident, a man identified as Marco Anthony Portillo Jr. of Weslaco, Texas, lost his life after a fall inside a wind turbine while on the job in Archer County. The incident, which happened Wednesday afternoon, April 24, sent shockwaves through the community, leaving questions about how this happened, according to Archer County Sheriff Jack Curd.
In a devastating incident, a man identified as Marco Anthony Portillo Jr. of Weslaco, Texas, lost his life after a fall inside a wind turbine while on the job in Archer County. The incident, which happened Wednesday afternoon, April 24, sent shockwaves through the community, leaving questions about how this happened, according to Archer County Sheriff Jack Curd.
ARCHER COUNTY — In a devastating incident, a man identified as Marco Anthony Portillo Jr. of Weslaco, Texas, lost his life after a fall inside a wind turbine while on the job in Archer County.
The incident, which happened Wednesday afternoon, April 24, sent shockwaves through the community, leaving questions about how this happened, according to Archer County Sheriff Jack Curd.
Curd said that around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, dispatchers received a 911 call from one of the windfarms around Windthorst from the coworker of the deceased, stating that Portillo had fallen and was injured.
The coworker stated that he was above the deceased in the wind turbine and couldn’t see him, but after he had texted Portillo a couple of times with no response, …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]ARCHER COUNTY — In a devastating incident, a man identified as Marco Anthony Portillo Jr. of Weslaco, Texas, lost his life after a fall inside a wind turbine while on the job in Archer County.
The incident, which happened Wednesday afternoon, April 24, sent shockwaves through the community, leaving questions about how this happened, according to Archer County Sheriff Jack Curd.
Curd said that around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, dispatchers received a 911 call from one of the windfarms around Windthorst from the coworker of the deceased, stating that Portillo had fallen and was injured.
The coworker stated that he was above the deceased in the wind turbine and couldn’t see him, but after he had texted Portillo a couple of times with no response, he went to check on the victim and found that he had fallen.
Following the incident, Curd said accidents like this raise questions about safety measures within this specific energy sector.
“We’ve had a couple of trainings with the various windfarms in the area to ensure that we’re able to get first responders to them if they’re needed, like if there’s a rescue from high with the use of helicopters and first responders,” Curd said. “We’ve had trainings with them, and as far as I know, this is the first time we’ve had an incident like this.”
He went on to say that this experience shows that they need to do more real-world exercises to get to accidents quickly in remote areas, and sometimes, like Wednesday, it took a while to find out how to get to that specific tower.
At the moment, Sheriff Curd said the incident looks to be accidental but that the sheriff’s office is still investigating, noting that OSHA is also investigating from a safety aspect.
This is an ongoing investigation, so we’ll continue to update you as we learn more.
This is a developing story. Stick with Texoma’s Homepage for updates as more information becomes available.