YORK COUNTY, S.C. — The family of a man killed in an accident at a York County paper mill last week plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the company where he was working.
Samir Storey, 32, of Indian Trail, was killed last Tuesday at Resolute Forest Products outside Rock Hill. Storey, his cousin, Jermel Storey, and another man were contract workers hired to clean a large tank called a scrubber. It's used as a massive filter to remove pollutants from waste chemicals. The men were there for the first day of a 12-hour shift on the job.
The family held a news conference in Charlotte Tuesday to talk about what happened, and share their concerns about the safety of the plant.
Jermel Storey told reporters that they had just finished a lunch break around 1 a.m., and went back to work in the tank when something went wrong.
"I heard the emergency siren, and we saw some stuff pouring out the side of the tank and my cousin screamed, 'Ahhh!'” he said.
Storey said a few of the workers got out, but the door suddenly closed, and they couldn't get back inside to reach Samir.
Emergency officials said it appears some chemical leaked into the tank and Storey was overcome.
"I was asking for help, and I didn't see nobody moving to help my cousin. I felt helpless right then," Jermel Storey said.
The family's lawyer, Chris Chestnut, is raising questions about the response to the accident, the safety gear the men were wearing and the training they had beforehand.
Jermel Storey said they watched a 15-minute video and took a short test. Later, they tested safety masks by making sure they fit, and then employees sprayed harmless chemicals at the men to find out if they could smell them. Storey said during one test he could smell the chemicals, but was told that was OK.
Chestnut said the masks weren't enough protection for the job.
"They weren't safe enough to protect him from his very last toxic breath of poison gas," he said. "The safety of workers, the safety of brothers, of mothers, of cousins, of everyone at this company, at this plant, may be at risk."
Samir Storey was a father of three and husband to Jessica Storey. Through tears, she told reporters she doesn't know how to move on from here.
"We're empty. I feel crippled, crippled without him," she said. "I feel like there was no value in his life. No one tried to help him. No one tried to save him."
Channel 9 spoke with rescue crews who arrived on the scene minutes after the accident on Jan. 22. They said they could not get into the tank immediately because of the danger of the toxic chemicals still inside.
"The tank had to be ventilated for several hours. We couldn't just go right in," said Mike Channell with York County Emergency Management. "We got him out of the tank at 4:17 a.m."
That was nearly three hours after the initial call, but Channell said it was as soon as it was safe to go inside.
York County coroner Sabrina Gast arrived at the plant after Storey's body was already out of the tank and on the ground. She said it was still dark when she arrived. Gast said it appears Storey died between 1:15 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. That would mean right around the time the accident happened.
OSHA officials told Eyewitness News Tuesday that the investigation is still ongoing, and they don't expect a report for five weeks or more.
Officials with Resolute Forest Products said Tuesday that their thoughts are with the victim's family, however because there is an ongoing investigation they can't comment any further at this time.
For Jessica Storey and the entire family, answers can't come soon enough. Even then, their suffering remains.
"I don't know how we're going to be able to move on without my husband," Storey said.
She told reporters that when she got the call from her cousin about the accident, she drove from Union County to the mill. She got to the tank where her husband was, climbed up several flights of stairs and pushed open a small porthole to try and see him.
"I just kept banging on the tank, and asking him, calling out his name, asking him if he was all right. I never heard anything," she said.
Storey's funeral was Monday. Chestnut told Channel 9 he expects to file a lawsuit against the company within three weeks.