Kent, Covington men honored at Worker Memorial Day Ceremony

Published 5:08 pm Tuesday, April 28, 2026

A Kent man and a Covington man were among those honored during the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) Worker Memorial Day Ceremony on Tuesday, April 28, in Tumwater.

Jim Webb, of Kent, and Vadym Mukiienko, of Covington, were two of the 115 people who died in 2025 (or earlier) of a workplace incident or illness. It is the 33rd annual L&I ceremony to honor fallen workers at its headquarters.

“Each year this ceremony is one of the most important, and perhaps most difficult, things we do,” said L&I Director Joel Sacks. “It’s a reminder of how important workplace safety is, and of the real-life, heartbreaking impact of work-related deaths.”

Webb, 55, a 26-year veteran of the Kent-based Puget Sound Fire department, died Sept. 5, 2025, of cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer in late December 2024, according to Puget Sound Fire spokesperson Pat Pawlak. He retired from the agency June 30, 2025 after nearly four years as deputy chief. It is considered a line-of-duty death due to occupational-related cancer.

Pam Webb, the wife of Jim Webb, wrote about her husband for the Worker Memorial Day program.

“Jim passed away from glioblastoma brain cancer caused by hazardous materials he was exposed to as a firefighter,” Pam Webb wrote. “Firefighters face more than a 30% higher risk of brain cancer than the general population.”

Pam Webb shared about Jim Webb’s career and his impact on her life.

“Jim dedicated his life to the fire service,” she wrote. “In 2011, he founded the South King County Fire Training Recruit Academy, shaping hundreds of firefighters who now serve in his example. Jim’s positions over 26 years with the fire service spanned from firefighter to deputy chief. He was a devoted father, proud Papa and as a husband, he was my everything. Jim was kind, intelligent, ethical and a leader.

“We miss him every day.”

Mukiienko, 54, was working as a driver for Sky City Trucking LLC when he lost his life on Sept. 18, 2025. The company is based in Fife and Mukiienko delivered a load to a construction site near Alexander Avenue East and State Route 509 in Tacoma. He had been delivering large pipes to the construction site. The pipes fell onto him and crushed him.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office lists his cause of death as accidental, due to “multiple blunt force injuries.”

Ganna Stogniy, the wife of Mukiienko, wrote about her husband for the ceremony’s program.

“He came to the United States from Ukraine in 2023, seeking safety for his family from devastating war,” Stogniy wrote. “In Ukraine, he served as a police officer before pursuing his creative passion as a woodworker and restorer of antique furniture. After arriving in the U.S., he retrained as a truck driver to provide for his family.”

Stogniy described Mukiienko.

“Vadym was an open-hearted, generous person, always ready to help other and dedicated to every task he undertook,” she wrote. “His passing is a profound and painful loss for me and our sons.”

Eighty-nine of the 115 workers being memorialized this year died in 2025. The remaining 26 died before last year but were not included in previous ceremonies, according to L&I.

Forty-nine died from exposure to toxic chemicals at work. Thirteen of them were firefighters, and at least a dozen worked at the Hanford Site nuclear facility. Others worked as pipefitters, mechanics, construction workers and other industries that work with hazardous chemicals.

Other leading causes of death included blunt force or crushing injuries, motor vehicle accidents and falls.

“The best way to honor fallen workers is to focus on preventing these tragedies from happening in the first place—to encourage employers and workers to create a workplace culture centered around safety,” Sacks said.