A construction worker who was shingling a new modular home in Montauk fell from scaffolding at least two stories high on Friday afternoon and died of his injuries.
East Hampton Town police said Geordano Manuel Segarra Aguirre, 41, who split his time between Springs and Queens, was working at 57 Glenmore Avenue alongside his brother, Wilson Segarra, when he fell about 30 feet to his death. Police and emergency medical personnel from the Montauk Fire Department were called to the residential construction site at around 3 p.m. A Suffolk County medevac helicopter was asked to respond, but it was soon canceled. A paramedic pronounced Mr. Segarra Aguirre dead at the scene.
He reportedly fell from the scaffold onto concrete stairs leading to a basement. Capt. Chris Anderson said Mr. Segarra Aguirre was not wearing safety gear, such as a harness or a hard hat.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, as is the police department and the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office. Generally, OSHA requires the use of fall protection equipment when construction workers are working at heights of six feet or more.
The purpose of an OSHA inspection is to determine if the employers are in compliance with OSHA safety standards. The federal agency has up to six months to complete the inspection. According to an OSHA spokesman, Mr. Segarra Aguirre was employed by CB Carpentry Corp. The general contractor on the job was P.K. Inc.
There were others at the construction site, Captain Anderson said, but no eyewitnesses to the fall. “There is nothing to indicate anything other than a tragic accident,” he said.
When reached on Tuesday, Mr. Segarra said he was too upset to talk about his brother’s death.
“This is a nightmare,” Clelia Romero, the victim’s girlfriend, said in Spanish on Tuesday. His brother called her with the news an hour after the accident.
The couple had been living together for seven months in Jackson Heights, since he moved from France, where he lived for five years, Ms. Romero said. He worked in construction with his brother, living with him in Springs, and went home to her on weekends and one night during the week, she said. He loved the native El Salvadoran dishes she pre pared, particularly pupusas, and they already had plans for Valentine’s Day.
They planned to marry and hoped to find a larger apartment closer to her job at the Resort World Casino in Jamaica, Queens, if he could find new work. He liked driving and talked about being a chauffeur.
“He was a very loved man, especially for me,” Ms. Romero said, adding that he was gentle, friendly, and helpful. “Manuel was a man with a child’s heart, the most loving I’ve ever met.”
He grew up in Santa Isabel in Ecuador’s Yunguilla Valley. His mother still lives there. “She is shattered,” Ms. Romero said. Two children, a daughter, 19, and a son, 22, who live in Ecuador, also survive him.
Ms. Romero said her boyfriend adored her children, ages 6 to 10. He took her son Marcus, 8, fishing in Northwest Harbor during one of their visits to East Hampton last summer. They were looking forward to the coming summer months. “We made many plans, too many,” she said.
Her 6-year-old son, Aniel, was particularly attached to Mr. Segarra Aguirre and is taking his death the hardest, she said. “Aniel still believes that Manuel will come. Last night I told him that Manuel is in the sky, that he is one more star in the sky.”
Services will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. They were not set as of press time.