Two small legal practices have moved into downtown office buildings.

The Baton Rouge offices of Irwin Fritchie Urquhart & Moore are now located on the 11th floor of the Chase North Tower, attorney Matt Bailey told the Downtown Development District Board Tuesday. Sprinkle Law Firm has moved into One American Place, said attorney Richard Sprinkle.

Two small legal practices have moved into downtown office buildings.

The Baton Rouge offices of Irwin Fritchie Urquhart & Moore are now located on the 11th floor of the Chase North Tower, attorney Matt Bailey told the Downtown Development District Board Tuesday. Sprinkle Law Firm has moved into One American Place, said attorney Richard Sprinkle.

Premier South Roofing, a prominent Baton Rouge roofing company, faces nearly $250,000 in federal penalties after the company failed to heed regulators' earlier warnings and an unprotected worker fell 30 feet and died in April.

The U.S Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the death of the worker on April 2 could have been avoided had Premier South Roofing not ignored warnings from a different work site investigation in February and used recommended protective measures to avoid falls. 

“Falls continue to be the leading cause of deaths in the construction industry and yet, employers like Premier South Roofing LLC repeatedly failed to protect their workers from the risk of disabling injuries or worse,” Roderic Chube, the OSHA area director based in Baton Rouge, said in a statement Monday.

"Ensuring that workers are trained on and use proper fall protection, as required by law, can prevent tragedies such as this from recurring."

In 2020, nearly 35% of construction fatalities in the United States were from falls, federal worker data says.

OSHA said these deaths are preventable with proper training and advance job planning to identify hazards and needed safety equipment, including harnesses, scaffolding and ladders.

OSHA said workers who are 6 feet or higher above a lower floor are at risk for serious injury or death if they should fall.

The Premier South worker who died in April was part of a crew repairing and replacing a roof. The worker lost footing and stepped on and fell through a sky light to a floor below, OSHA officials said.

The 22-year-old, who was not identified, later died at a hospital, OSHA said.

OSHA said five other workers on that April 2 job also were exposed to fall hazards. 

Following an April inspection, OSHA cited Premier South for two repeat violations for failing to provide fall protection and failing to verify employee training. The company now faces $249,323 in proposed penalties, the agency said.

The location of the April 2 workplace death was not identified, but OSHA said Premier South Roofing works in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, the north shore and other areas of the state.

The roofing business in Louisiana has been through a busy period after Hurricane Ida tore through the state last year.

The company has about 200 employees who do residential and commercial roofing.

A person answering the telephone at Premier South Roofing's Baton Rouge office said on Monday that the company declined to comment.

The earlier warnings to Premier South Roofing stemmed from the observations of an OSHA inspector on Feb. 2.

The inspector saw five company employees working on a roof without adequate fall protection. That finding triggered an inspection as part of the agency’s Regional Emphasis Program for Construction, OSHA said. 

Since Jan. 1, 2016, Premier South Roofing has been issued more than $64,500 in OSHA fines over earlier violations related to lacking fall protection and safe ladder handling, according to OSHA's website.

At least one of those fall protection violations was a repeat citation and the fine total incorporates some reduced penalties following informal settlements with OSHA.   

Email David J. Mitchell at dmitchell@theadvocate.com.

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