Authorities identify man killed in Fairfax storm

David Lee Fry, a 38-year engineer at Intermec who was found dead on Monday in a unique testing site in Fairfax, was described by the company as an experienced and dedicated worker.

Fry, 57, of Cedar Rapids, joined the company in 1976 and served as a senior regulatory engineer.

The 29-year-old building came down Monday afternoon, sometime before 2:45 p.m. when emergency personnel responded to reports of a building blown down by high winds with people trapped inside at 90 W. Cemetery Rd.

The building, constructed in 1985, was used to examine products for electromagnetic interference. It was originally custom built and leased to Norand Corp., which was acquired by Intermec Inc. in 1997.

Intermec was acquired by Honeywell in September.

Mark Steffens, the site leader for Honeywell's Cedar Rapids Technology Center, noted in a written statement that Fry 'was instrumental in helping to build the Fairfax test site into an integral part of our engineering capabilities. Dave was always willing to help out others in any way possible and was well known for his expertise.”

When emergency personnel arrived on scene, they found Fry under the rubble. He was pronounced dead after responders were able to lift part of the structure off him.

Another employee thought to be trapped - 62-year-old Cedric Brownfield of Cedar Rapids - had escaped and was standing outside the facility with non-life threatening injuries when rescuers arrived.

Mark Hamel, communications manager at Honeywell International, said the building was a small test bed facility and the two employees spent most of their time there. The pair conducted testing operations that are related to the research-and-development work that is done in the Intermec by Honeywell technology center in Cedar Rapids.

The 30-foot building that sat at the northwest edge of the town was built without using any metal.

Instead of metal nails, bolts or plates, the vinyl-sided building - contracted by the late Buck Hill of Harvest Hill Construction Co. - was held together with nylon bolts, adhesive and plywood.

At the time of construction, Norand engineers said the building had to be non-metallic because metal could throw off the electromagnetic interference testing.

Electronic products need to be tested for interference because some products cause electronic noise that can interfere with other forms of radio communication, such as a police radio system or ground control communications at an airport.

Company officials on Tuesday did not address how the building had been maintained or how it might have been structurally modified.

Hamel said the building still served as a test site for evaluating product compliance with Federal Communications Commission requirements for cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Radio Frequency Identification radio transmitters and digital equipment.

The damage pattern of the collapsed building suggested the roof was blown off the building and causing some of the walls to collapse inward, according to the National Weather Service.

The peak winds during the thunderstorm in Fairfax were estimated at 80 miles per hour.

When originally constructed more 20 years ago, Norand specified that the building be able to withstand 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts.