An Indiana woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a Rumford paper mill, saying that her husband fell 80 feet into a chimney and suffered grievous injuries as a result of negligence by the mill and several contractors operating there.

Damion Hatcher, 35, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was working for a contractor when he fell into the opening of a chimney at ND Paper Inc. on May 28, 2025, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Maine last week.

Hatcher is unable to care for himself following the injuries he sustained, which included a traumatic brain injury, respiratory collapse, broken bones and internal bleeding, according to the complaint.

Keyana Edwards, Hatcher’s wife and guardian, is the plaintiff.

“What happened to Mr. Hatcher wasn’t some unavoidable accident. It was the kind of thing that happens when basic workplace safety rules aren’t followed,” Edwards’ attorneys, Meryl Poulin and Stephanie Mills of the law firm Gideon Asen, said in a written statement Wednesday morning. “This should never have happened.”

The complaint claims ND Paper and contractors based in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey operating at the mill are responsible for the fall, saying some of them employed supervisors who Hatcher was working with.

Hatcher was employed at the time by Strategic Environmental Response Solutions, whose corporate office is in Texas. The company was contracted to provide industrial cleaning and environmental services at the mill, according to the complaint, but is not named as a defendant.

The suit claims that Hatcher was required to work “within a confined, ultra-hazardous space surrounding the opening of a chimney” that drops 80 feet to a large industrial boiler.

The complaint says the mill and contractors ignored workplace safety requirements when they directed Hatcher and other personnel to work “in dangerous proximity to the chimney opening without appropriate operational safeguards, monitoring, or fall protection measures.”

Hatcher was directed to scrape accumulated ash and debris from the floor of the confined space, according to the lawsuit, then to use a hose to wash it down the opening of the chimney. Hatcher later requested that his work be inspected to determine whether it was satisfactory, according to the lawsuit.

An attendant, who the lawsuit says was assigned to monitor Hatcher despite not having the proper training, allegedly did not instruct Hatcher to exit the confined space while a supervisor was summoned. The attendant saw Hatcher standing inside the confined space but then lost sight of him, according to the complaint.

“Makeshift scaffolding rails” were the only source of fall protection, which violates industry standards and safety regulations, according to the complaint. A supervisor noticed that one of the rails was lying on the floor and asked the attendant whether anyone had been working in the confined space, according to the complaint.

An initial search failed to find Hatcher, according to the lawsuit; he was found roughly 30 minutes later by first responders. They performed a blood transfusion and transported Hatcher to Maine Medical Center in Portland via a LifeFlight helicopter, according to the complaint.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated following the fall and issued citations for violations to ND Paper and the contractors.

“Fall protection standards are straightforward and exist to prevent exactly this type of tragedy. In this case, those protections simply weren’t there,” Poulin and Mills, the plaintiff’s lawyers, said in their Wednesday statement. “Our goal is accountability — and making sure the safety rules meant to protect workers are actually followed.”

ND Paper learned of the lawsuit Tuesday, when it was first reported by WGME-TV, and was reviewing it, a spokesperson said late Tuesday. The company takes any injury at its facility very seriously and cooperated with the OSHA investigations, the spokesperson said.

The complaint requests a trial by jury and seeks compensation for past and future medical expenses, loss of earnings, and punitive damages, among other claims.

ND Paper Inc. also operates paper and packaging facilities in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin, according to a spokesperson, while its mill in Old Town has been idled.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Feb. 25, 2026, to include comment from the plaintiff’s attorneys.