An employee at Winkler's welding company in Arbutus was in serious condition Sept. 29 after a forklift he was operating fell on him, according to the Baltimore County Fire Department.

Fire department emergency crews were called to the scene in the 4300 block of Southwestern Boulevard at 10:30 a.m. Monday and found Denson Bonilla Suaza, 42, pinned from the waist down under the forklift and a load of steel, according to county fire department spokeswoman Elise Armacost.

Armacost noted that Winkler's employees had done "an admirable job" of stabilizing the forklift until fire department personnel arrived.

Suaza, who lives in the 2300 block Marbourne Avenue in Baltimore, had been using the forklift to move steel materials on pallets when the machinery fell, she said.

About a dozen emergency units responded from the Halethorpe career fire station, Arbutus and Violetville volunteer departments and from Howard County.

The crews used high-pressure airbags to lift the forklift and extricate Suaza, an operation that took about 20 minutes, Armacost said.

He was transported to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was classified a "priority 1" patient, the most serious classification, she said.

"I wish him the good Lord's blessing and hope he heals as painlessly as possible, and soon," said Jeff Winkler, who manages the welding company shop.

He declined to comment further.

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