OSHA Fines Maine Roofing Firm $1.8 Million for Worker’s Death from Fall

The federal government says the owner of a Maine home improvement company must pay nearly $1.8 million in penalties for safety violations following the death of an employee.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the worker, 30-year-old Alan Loignon, fell to his death from a Portland home last year while he was climbing down a ladder onto scaffolding. OSHA says 44-year-old Shawn Purvis, owner of Purvis Home Improvement Co., must pay the fines.

OSHA says it’s the largest workplace fine in New England in recent years. Purvis’s attorney, Thomas Hallett, tells the Portland Press Herald that Purvis is planning a challenge of the fines. Hallett says Purvis argues the agency’s stretching its own rules and doesn’t have jurisdiction to sanction his company.