Kay Nichols, left, and Cathy Fox-Hammett, right, light a flame for a balloon. Nichols works at the plant today and Fox-Hammett was a switchboard operator at the plant in 1978 and made the first calls for ambulances. PHOTO BY JEFFREY SAULTON

WILLOW ISLAND — April 27, 1978 is a date many in Pleasants County will never forget.

On that date the lives of 51 workers came to an end when scaffolding inside the second cooling tower at the Pleasants Power Station pulled its anchors from the concrete wall and fell 170 feet to the ground.

On Friday a crowd of more than 100 gathered for a 40th Remembrance of the tragedy at a nearby memorial to those who were killed that day.

Bob Doty, a former fire chief and mayor of Belmont, recalled the events of the day. At the time he was working at the Union Carbide plant in Pleasants County and was at home sleeping after working a 16-hour shift.

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt said Dec. 7, 1941 was a day that would live in infamy,” he said. “April 27, 1978 is a date that will live in sorrow in this area.”

Doty said he was asked why people in the area are reluctant to talk about what happened. He said part of that is because people are reminded of the family and friends they lost every day as they travel along West Virginia 2 past the Pleasants Power Station.

“We see the tower behind us and we see the plaque here honoring the 51 men who died,” he said. “So we don’t have to speak about it every day; it’s in our hearts and minds all the time.”

When Doty got home from his work at 8:30 a.m. he did not notice his wife and son were not home. He had not heard anything about the disaster.

“At about 10:30 a.m. the phone rang and woke me up,” he said. “I answered the phone and Jim Riggs called and said ‘Bob, do you have the keys to the new city building?’ and I said ‘yes’ and he said ‘Good, we may need it to put the bodies in’ and I said ‘What in God’s name are you talking about?'”

At that point Doty learned tower two had collasped, killing 51. Doty said it was a rude awakening for him and others in Belmont. Doty said the ambulances were lined up from W.Va. 2 to the fire department.

Doty learned a State Police captain was on his way from the Shinnston Detachment.

Instead of a captain they feared would do more harm than good, they got Capt. Joe Trupo.

“He said ‘Good morning I’m Capt. Trupo, how can I help you?'” Doty said. “I said Capt. Trupo the question is what can we do to help you because we are lost.”

Doty said Trupo took charge, drawing on his experience from the Silver Bridge and Farmington Mine disasters. Doty found his wife was at work in the community building helping to make food for the emergency workers.

On that day volunteers showed up and helped in any way they could. He said when the state medical examiner decided to come to the scene, he called for volunteer typists to prepare death certificates, one woman showed up with her portable typewriter and went to work.

After a time the major TV networks of the era and others arrived, and while some were easy to deal with, others were obnoxious, Doty said. He said after being asked where the memorial service would take place, Doty said he knew any church in Belmont would be overwhelmed. He asked Gov. Jay Rockefeller’s staff to ask for a proclamation declaring the following Sunday a statewide day of mourning and have memorial services.

After Friday’s memorial, miniature hot air balloons were released bearing the names of those who died.

Cathy Fox-Hammett, of Parkersburg, and Kay Nichols were among those helping to send the balloons aloft.

Fox-Hammett said she was the switchboard operator at the plant that day.

“I was the one who made the first calls for the ambulances,” she said. “It was a day I will never forget, I was 23 at the time — it was 40 years ago.”

Nichols, who works at the plant today, was in high school then.

“Many of them (who died) there were a year or two ahead of me in school,” she said.

Angie Colvin, who organized the service, said she saw the balloons at a service and decided to do the same for the 40th Year Remembrance.

“I was at a service where that was done and I looked them up on line,” she said. “The Parkersburg-Marietta Building Trades paid for them.”

After the accident, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated and sought the maximum fines against three companies, $108,300 in all, for safety violations. The concrete had insufficient time to cure, OSHA said.

Research-Cottrell of Bound Brook, N.J., the company building the tower, was cited with 16 violations, 10 deemed willful, and proposed it be fined $105,100.

General contractor United Engineers and Constructors Inc. and Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory each received two serious citations and were fined $1,600 each.