DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 1997           TAG: 9710150492

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, MATT BOWERS AND LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF

        WRITERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   50 lines

TWO WORKERS RESCUED AFTER CLOSE CALL

Two construction workers dangled six stories above the ground Tuesday at Norfolk State University, clinging to ropes after bricks fell from a building facade above them and knocked them off a scaffold.

Neither man suffered life-threatening injuries. No one else was hurt.

The accident happened about 1 p.m. at the Edward L. Hamm Jr. Fine Arts Building. A campus police officer said he and others saved one worker by breaking a sixth-floor window and pulling the man inside.

``(He) was telling me he couldn't hang on,'' said Lt. William Whidbee of the campus police. ``We broke the window and I told the guy to just hang on to me. My main concern was to get him in before he fell.''

The rescued man was identified as Ray Conley, 35. The other man, Arnold Grahm, 32, lowered himself a little on the rope and was rescued by Norfolk firefighters, who raised an aerial ladder to him.

As Grahm stepped onto the ladder, he thrust both arms into the air and yelled triumphantly. The crowd below broke into applause.

The two men worked for Blue Ridge Construction, said Gerald Tyler, a Norfolk State spokesman. The victims were taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and were expected to be released Tuesday night.

Tyler said the workers were reinforcing brickwork on the building when the accident happened. It caused a loud crack that could be heard across campus. The accident caused a small stir on campus as a crowd of students gathered on each side of the building.

Jamal Middleton, a sophomore from Columbia, S.C., was walking past the building on his way to his 1 p.m. physical science class when he heard the noise and looked up.

``I saw the bricks fall right on top of their heads,'' Middleton said. ``I heard a lot of screaming. I looked up and saw the whole thing falling on them. Just a big boom and smoke was everywhere.''

Some of the bricks crashed through the ceiling of the empty first-floor band room, where students from the Governor's School for the Arts usually rehearse, but no one was reported injured. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

A Norfolk Fire Department boom is used to take a closer look at a

section of facade that collapsed at the Fine Arts Building at

Norfolk State University on Tuesday. The bricks fell on two men

working on a scaffold, but they managed to hold on to ropes long

enough to be rescued. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu