An Amish Family Was Tearing Down A Home To Replace It When The Roof Collapsed. A Man Was Pinned Underneath & Has Died
An Amish family in Juniata County, Pennsylvania was involved in an incident Wednesday while dismantling a trailer home. A roof collapsed, pinning a man underneath.
This accident was first reported two days ago, with relatively few details. Now a fresh report informs us that the man pinned under the structure has died. From WGAL:
WALKER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Juniata County Coroner said the man who was pinned under a building that collapsed on Wednesday morning has died at a hospital in Mifflin County.
His identity has not yet been released.
A mobile home collapsed in Juniata County Wednesday morning, pinning a man to the ground underneath a roof after the structure fell on top of him.
It happened on the 300 block of Kauffman Hill Road in Walker Township at 9:47 a.m. State police are investigating and did not release the name of the person who had been injured.
The man’s identity was just released today. His name is Levi Yoder, and he was aged 68. He is not specifically named as Amish but everything about the story, including details, context, and name, suggests that he was. Juniata County is home to an Amish settlement of over 1,300 people.
Why was this Amish family taking apart the building?
Neighbors told WGAL Reporter Tom Lehman an Amish family had been taking down the residence and were going to replace it with another. The neighbors also said a man was seriously hurt.
It may have been the case that a property the family owned or recently purchased had a trailer home on it. In all likelihood it was previously lived in by non-Amish residents. And they decided it was time to remove the building, moving towards building a new home on the site.
This would not be surprising as many Amish have skills in construction. De-construction is not the same thing of course, and a trailer home may have seemed easier to handle than say a two-story farmhouse.
When you say “family”, it could be anything from a handful of people to a dozen or more in an extended family. That noted, this report at CBS 21 says that “a few people” were doing the work. Just surmising, but given his age he may have been helping a son or daughter’s family in the project.
The reporter for CBS 21 also had this to say:
“A woman drove by earlier. She did say she was worried about that property. She actually says she’s been worried about that property for months, and that she wasn’t really shocked when she had heard that it came down.”
An investigation into what happened continues. Prayers for this man’s family.
