State labor officials are investigating the death of a 23-year-old ironworker who suffered a fatal fall in late December from atop Seattle University’s dorm and office project near Madison and 12th Ave.
Raymond Estores is reported to have fallen down an elevator shaft in the Saturday, December 30th morning incident from near the top of the 10-story Vi Hilbert Hall project under construction along E Madison. Seattle Police and Seattle Fire were called to the scene just after 9 AM.
In a message to the campus sent this week, school president Stephen Sundborg said Seattle U has reached out to the Estores family to “offer our condolences and support while being respectful of their privacy during this difficult time.” “We will find a way to memorialize Mr. Estores when Vi Hilbert Hall is completed that is consistent with his family’s wishes,” he writes.
While CHS has covered occasional serious injuries during the past decade of the construction boom around Capitol Hill, we’re not aware of any recent deaths involving a worker at a construction site in the area.
Howard S. Wright is the lead contractor on the Seattle U construction project. The 10-story mixed-use office and dorm project is expected to open by fall of this year.
Estores’s family posted about his death as they raised funds to help cover funeral expenses:
Ray leaves behind his 2yr old daughter Amaia’a and her mother Simone. His loving girlfriend Alania and her 2 kids Mayson and Ella. He was survived by his mother Faith and father Nino younger siblings, brother Bernard and Sister Nina. As well as Countless Aunties, Uncles, numerous Cousins,nieces, nephews. Also all of his friends from the South Side here in Lacey Olympia. To everyone at River Ridge High School. His MMA family and coworkers from his current job at Iron workers union 86.
