Allen’s Blueberry Freezer of Ellsworth and its sister company, R.T. & Allen Sons Inc., are contesting more than $31,000 in fines assessed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violations that resulted in a worker losing his arm in an industrial accident Down East last November.

The Bangor office of OSHA issued citations on April 23 after having conducted inspections through April 1.

Last Nov. 17, Conrad Peabody of Columbia Falls lost his arm while burning wild blueberry fields in Columbia belonging to R.T. Allen & Sons Inc. of Ellsworth.

Roy Allen, president of Allen’s Blueberry Freezer, met with OSHA officials July 8 at an informal conference in Augusta. There was no resolve of the issues at that point, said William Freeman, OSHA’s area director.

“The fines are still under contest,” Freeman said Monday. “We issued the citations, and the employer had 15 working days to answer. He has the right to request an informal conference, and he did that.

“He contested the citations to keep his rights open. We are still working locally to resolve this.”

Allen did not return phone calls on Monday or Tuesday.

R.T. Allen & Sons incurred fines totaling $25,000.

The biggest citation was a willful violation with a $22,000 fine. That was levied because the tractor’s power take-off shafts “were not guarded either by a master shield or by other protective guarding.”

Allen’s Blueberry Freezer has been fined $6,300. Of that amount, $4,200 was issued because the burner that Peabody was operating did not have the fuel and blower pump belt and pulleys guarded, the OSHA investigation showed.

Peabody’s accident took place last November at the Merritt field on Saco Falls Road, about four miles north of the Four Corners Shopping Center.

An employee of R.T. Allen & Sons, Peabody was operating a 1985 Long 2610 farm tractor and a burner that did not have warning signs specifying that PTO shafts and their elements must be guarded. That left him exposed to accidental contact from the unguarded fuel and blower pump belt and pulleys on the burner, the OSHA citations indicated.

The tractor, which was owned and maintained by Allen’s Blueberry Freezer, also was not equipped with rollover protective structures, the OSHA inspection revealed.

Working alone just after noon, Peabody was off his tractor to adjust the drive shaft of the attached burner when his arm became entangled. Another worker saw him in distress and called for help.

Treated first at Eastern Maine Medical Center, he was flown to Beth Israel West Hospital in Boston for surgeries. He remained in the Boston hospital until Dec. 23.

Peabody’s injuries were extensive. His left arm is gone (he is right-handed), and his right arm was fractured. His left hip needed replacement, and the lower portion of his left leg had several breaks. He also had 40 staples for cuts from his forehead to his ear.

More than nine months after the accident, Peabody is two weeks away from receiving a prosthesis. He is walking without a cane, and has had his truck fitted with controls that allow him to drive.

Last week he started physical therapy appointments in Machias at the Down East Community Hospital’s Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic.

“They say attitude is 90 percent of the battle,” he said Monday as he worked with therapist Dan Guptill.

He says he is not pleased that he has not heard anything from Roy Allen since the accident.

Still, Peabody looks forward to the day when someone else can make use of the wheelchair ramp – for free – that was placed outside his door last winter. He no longer needs it, now that he can use stairs again. He wants someone else to benefit from it.

He also wants to join the Columbia Falls Volunteer Fire Department, if it’ll have him.

“Life goes on,” he said. “People have helped me, so now I would like to help others if I can.”