A man who died after falling more than 30 feet into an empty tank at a St. Petersburg water treatment facility has been identified.

The accident happened shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday at the Northwest Water Treatment Facility near Azalea Park.

Homero Levario Juarez, 52, was sub-contracted by the city to re-surface the interior of the water tank. 

Investigators say Juarez was inside the basket of a scissor lift that had been extended to about 30 feet off the ground and was operating a pressurized liquid concrete hose.

When the hose was charged it caused a recoil at the nozzle Juarez was holding, which propelled him backwards and out of the basket, police say.

Police say Juarez was wearing a safety harness at the time, but the harness was not secured to the basket.

"The worker was actually on a scissors platform and he was doing some routine maintenance on one of the walls in the tank," said Lt. Joel Granata with St. Petersburg Fire Rescue.

Granata said the aerator tank holds about 2.2 million gallons of reclaimed water when it is full.

Juarez suffered what Granata called "unsurvivable trauma injuries."

"We did work him to the best of our abilities but unfortunately he did not make it," Granata said.

SPFR crews used their rescue truck and a basket to recover Juarez's body from inside the tank.

"For the safety of our firefighters and everything we go ahead and use our equipment," Granata said. "We don't know if the scissors contributed to the fact that maybe he fell. So, we'll go ahead and use our stuff. We know it's safe."

Juarez worked for Spectrum Contracting out of Naples, Fla. He lived in Lehigh, FL.