A fire chief and fire captain have both passed away while carrying out tower maintenance outside their firehouse in Ohio.

Concord-Green fire chief Ralph Stegbauer and fire captain Jeffery Skaggs were working on the tower in Fayette County, Ohio, when the mechanical lift they were in overturned.

Both sustained fatal injuries from the incident and were pronounced dead at the scene, according to a press statement issued by the Fayette County, Ohio Sheriff’s Office (FCSO), on Saturday (November 25) at 11:05 am.

The FCSO had received a call reporting the incident, which happened along Route 62 and Locust Street in the village of Staunton.

Stegbauer and Skaggs were using the lift to carry out repairs to the radio tower outside the firehouse when the lift tipped over, ejecting both of them from the basket.

“The lift was sitting on a trailer. It was motored in on a trailer, and they left it on there for what reason we don’t know," said Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth when speaking to a local TV station.

"When they were coming down, it shifted, which caused it to fall off the trailer, and unfortunately, both were killed on impact when they hit the ground.”

Stanforth added that Stegbauer and Skaggs were the only two at the firehouse when it happened, before a passerby found the lift on the ground and called for help.

DCD's sympathies go out to the workers, and their friends, family, and colleagues.