A Pawtucket, R.I., company whose worker fell and died at an Edgartown construction site in February is being fined nearly $20,000 for failing to give the proper safety training to its employees. 

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) last month issued three fines of $6,620 each to Empire Builders, which had hired Jose Luis Collaguazo Crespo to work at the Meshacket Commons affordable housing project in Edgartown. 

The agency found that Empire Builders did not provide a training program for each employee using ladders and stairways, which would have enabled employees to recognize hazards, according to OSHA records. 

Mr. Crespo, 32, of Fall River, was working on an eight-foot step ladder on an unfinished home at the affordable housing project on Feb. 11. He fell about 28 feet onto a concrete basement, according to OSHA. 

Mr. Crespo was taken to the hospital and later flown to Boston for further care, but died from his injuries. 

Empire Builders’s three fines add up to $19,860. 

“The employer did not ensure that each employee using ladders and/or stairways had been trained by a competent person in the nature of fall hazards in the work area,” OSHA wrote in one of the citations. 

Empire Builders did not respond to a request for comment this week on the fines. OSHA declined to comment on the fines and investigation, saying that the case was still open. 

Mr. Crespo, who was called Pepe by his loved ones, worked alongside his cousins in construction, and specialized in carpentry and remodeling. He left behind two young children, family wrote on a gofundme page aimed at covering funeral expenses and the cost of repatriating his body to his home country of Ecuador.

The family raised more than $30,000 for the effort, according to the page. 

Builders have since resumed construction of the Meshacket Commons project. The affordable housing development spearheaded by Island Housing Trust on Meshacket Road is expected to have 36 affordable rental housing units and four affordable ownership units. 

Philippe Jordi, the CEO of Island Housing Trust, said an internal investigation into the death of Mr. Cespo found no irregularities at the worksite and OSHA didn't find any safety violations at the Meshacket construction site.

“The safety measures are very robust,” he said. 

Mr. Jordi said the trust expresses its sincere condolences to Mr. Crespo's family. He referred questions on the specifics of the incident to Delbrook, the main contractor at the worksite. The company’s director of safety and risk management did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week. 

The development is on schedule and Mr. Jordi anticipated the tenant selection process to start this fall and be completed by the end of the year.