August 31, 2022
A 30-year-old man died Tuesday night after multiple concrete walls collapsed at a building under construction at the Martin's Famous Potato Rolls and Bread plant in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, State Police said.
The incident happened around 2:15 p.m. at the plant off Garber Road in Guilford Township, where the family-run bakery was constructing a new facility. The collapse occurred as a storm system moved through Franklin County, causing the newly erected walls to become unstable.
Multiple fire departments and search crews were at the scene on Tuesday afternoon and were able to account for all but one contractor, police said. Martin's, whose plant had not yet been connected to the new building, said all of its employees were safe. Wohlsen Construction, the general contractor on the project, worked alongside rescue crews to secure the area after the incident.
At around 9:45 p.m., after an intensive search, crews found the body of Steven Garrett Graby, a Washington, Pennsylvania man who was an employee in the Structural Steel Erectors Division of Lancaster-based High Industries, Franklin County Coroner Jeff Conner told the Herald Mail Media.
Authorities have not yet determined whether the storms played a roll in the structural collapse.
Martin's, founded in the 1950's, has been in the midst of an expansion of its plant to add 260,000 square feet of production capacity to the facility.
The company became embroiled in controversy earlier this summer after it was reported by Billy Penn that the company's executive chairman, Bill Martin, donated more than $100,000 to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. The news spread across the food industry, prompting calls for a boycott of Martin's over the executive's support for a candidate viewed by many as a far-right extremist.
The investigation into the wall collapse at the company's plant remains ongoing, state police said.
