Drill-rig worker a ‘hero’
On a GoFundMe page, family and friends praise a construction worker who died in a drill-rig collapse at Sky Harbor Airport as a “hero.”
“How do you introduce a man lost too soon to a city who knows him as the ‘missing construction worker’ on the news? You simply try to do the best you can.”
Post on GoFundMe page for Melvin Self
The public knew him as the missing drill-rig worker, his family remembers him as a father lost too soon, a man who tried to save others before he fell to his death.
A GoFundMe page, for the construction worker killed earlier this week in a drill-rig collapse at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, was set up Saturday. The page said that it was set up by a family friend with input from the man’s fiancee and approval from the family.
They wrote about Melvin Self, 52, known to those who loved him as Wayne, and remembered the man he was before the accident.
“How do you introduce a man lost too soon to a city who knows him as the ‘missing construction worker’ on the news?” the post read. “You simply try to do the best you can,”
“(Melvin) Wayne Self was a little rebel but a whole lot of hero,” they said.
The post said the campaign was created in response to the public’s desire to help the family with financial relief as well as funeral costs. It had raised $6,150 of $15,000, as of 5 p.m. Saturday.
‘A daughter’s first love and a son’s first hero’
They wrote that Self was a selfless man who yelled to co-workers to get out of harm’s way when the hole began to give way.
After Self was trapped, firefighters battled unsafe grounds and there were even two firemen who stayed every night for four nights on sight, the page said.
Self, a driller by profession, was known as an earth mover, a fabricator, a welder, a framer with calloused hands but a tender touch, the Go Fund Me post said.
A father of five children and a grandfather of five grandchildren, Self was described as a “daughter’s first love and a son’s first hero,” the post said.
Self was the operator of the drilling rig that toppled onto its side at a construction site earlier this week, Phoenix Fire Department officials said. He was trapped in the hole blocked by the heavy machinery and dirt that seeped into the pit.
Firefighters started the rescue mission on Monday, hoping to save Self before it was too late. But by Tuesday, with no sign of Self, the effort turned into a recovery mission, officials said.
The incident occurred just south of Sky Harbor Boulevard, near the West Economy parking lot and west of Terminals 3 and 4. The site was on Sky Harbor property, as construction is being done for the PHX Sky Train.
‘Drilling holes in the floor of heaven’
The post said that Self and his fiancee had faced a battle against breast cancer together, but “it was no match for the love and friendship they had with each other.”
Crews recovered Self ’s body on Thursday after four days.
“There are dangers in construction but none of us could predict a tragedy like this,” the post said. “You are gone too soon, like leaving the stage in the middle of your song.”
In the photo with the post, Self is wearing a baseball cap, a denim shirt and smiling.
A family member told The Arizona
Republic that they approved the GoFundMe statement and that it does Self ’s life justice.
“You are in a place far greater than we can ever imagine,” the post said. “What we do know for sure is you’re drilling holes in the floor of heaven to make sure you can look down on us.”
Firefighters, emergency workers and police officers were thanked for working to bring “our Wayne home to us.”