Police Not Sure What Caused 'Freak' Accident at Riverhead Building Supply

A 75-year-old customer was seriously injured in a Riverhead Building Supply warehouse in East Hampton when sheets of wallboard fell on him Friday morning in what police are calling “a freak” accident. The customer, George Lombardi, who is an East Hampton builder, remained in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital as of Tuesday.

East Hampton Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson said there was no doubt that Mr. Lombardi was lucky to be alive after at least “a couple hundred sheets fell from their stored stacked position.” Detectives investigated the accident, which occurred in one of the large warehouses at 1 Cove Hollow Road and Route 114, just before 10:30 a.m. While they have closed the investigation, they are still unsure what exactly caused the wallboard to topple over; it had not been hit by a forklift or any other vehicle.

“We don’t know what happened,” Captain Anderson said. The wallboard is stacked about 20 feet high in what are called drafts, each of which has about 30 sheets in it. The drafts are separated by a two-inch space to allow a forklift to remove some. The man and a Riverhead Building Supply employee were standing at one end of the stacked wallboards.

“There was no forewarning. The yard worker who was there was lucky himself. Another flip and he would be under it too,” he said. “It was a horrible, horrible freak incident.”

A medevac helicopter airlifted Mr. Lombardi to Stony Brook University Hospital, the nearest trauma center, from East Hampton Airport in Wainscott. Captain Anderson said he did not know the extent of Mr. Lombardi’s injuries.

“It was one of the worst accidents I’ve seen where the person was actually alive,” said East Hampton Village Chief Gerard Larsen, who happened to be nearby and responded. Chief Larsen had left work mid-morning so that he could pick his daughter up from college, and was driving down Route 114 when he saw two village police cars racing to a call. Curious, he followed them to what is known as Riverhead Building Supply Dairy Yard. Along with police officers, Riverhead Building Supply employees, and East Hampton firefighters, who had also been called, he helped lift the sheets off the man.

Though he was unsure of exactly how many of the 8-by-4 boards there were, “It had to be thousands of pounds,” Chief Larsen said. “It took two people to move each section.” One sheet averages about 70 pounds.

Though the accident occurred in the town police jurisdiction, village police assisted because the supply yard is close to the village-town line. Chief Larsen had a village police officer drive Mr. Lombardi’s wife to Stony Brook after Riverhead Building Supply informed her of the accident, he said.

“Everyone there did a terrific job — the firefighters, the paramedic, the police, the Riverhead employees,” he said. Nick Calace, a paramedic who works for the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, was one of the first to arrive, and did a great job caring for Mr. Lombardi and directing help, the chief said.

Riverhead Building Supply’s corporate office did not respond to a request for comment.