Employee
saves lives
in collapse
Hopkins
• Top Tobacco engineer alerts employees to impending collapse of concrete-block wall beside existing Lake Waccamaw plant. Work in the plant resumed today (Thursday).
By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer
“That man saved some lives Tuesday, that’s for sure,” Lake Waccamaw Police Chief Scott Hyatt said Wednesday, describing the actions of a Top Tobacco Company employee at the lake.
“Richard Hopkins, the company engineer, came back to the plant from lunch Tuesday just after noon,” Hyatt continued. “Someone pointed out to him a concrete-block wall that was being constructed that was swaying in the wind.
“Hopkins ran inside and ordered everyone out of the area where the wall is being constructed. Twelve minutes after Hopkins got back, the wall collapsed,” Hyatt declared.
“He saved some lives by what he did,” Hyatt reiterated.
The wall, 44 feet tall and about 30 feet long, was part of Top Tobacco’s fifth expansion since 1988. Under construction about 10 feet from the existing building, the wall fell on the east side of the building, crushing in about 50 feet of roof and wall.
Watched it fall
“If Hopkins hadn’t done such quick work in getting those people out, there would have probably been somebody killed, or at the very least someone would have been injured very badly,” the police chief pointed out.
After Hopkins got workers out of the building, he was outside calling to CSI construction workers about the impending disaster when he watched the wall fall, Hyatt stated.
A second section of the wall – not connected except for a few feet — did not fall.
“We were very fortunate no one was hurt,” Plant Manager Claus Platt said Wednesday.
“We can always replace brick and mortar,” he added.
Platt said he expected to be back to normal operations today (Thursday), although he said work in the damaged area had to be moved to other parts of the building.
Water covered floor
Hyatt said he toured the damaged area shortly after the accident and there was at least three inches of water on the floor in the affected area.
“There were small pieces of tobacco floating in the work area, the pieces the size being used in pouches and containers for roll-your-own cigarettes,” the chief added.
Water lines were cracked by the crash and flooded the central portion of the long building until water was shut off. Power to the building was also cut off to avoid electrical danger.
Top Tobacco now employs 100 and will add 70 more when the expansion is complete.
“There’s only one road for us now, and that’s ahead,” Platt said.