A community is reeling after an Athens man was killed late Wednesday night on the Federal-Mogul campus.

Alan Michael Brown, 25, was declared dead at the scene about 9:15 p.m. after a forklift ran over his body, according to Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson. Initial reports suggest he was securing a barrel to the forklift when he inadvertently fell under the machine, Johnson said.

As news spread of the young man’s death, friends and family took to social media to mourn the tragedy.

“This morning I had to wake up without my one true love by my side,” Brown’s wife Brianna wrote on Facebook Thursday. “I still cannot accept the fact he has been taken from me.”

Brianna said she and Alan had been together since their early teens. The two had one daughter, Violet, and expecting a second child in January. Just recently, Brianna and Alan had gone on vacation to Florida.

At Federal-Mogul, Alan’s coworkers feel the loss. The accident happened outside the shipping and receiving doors on the south end of the plant. Alan was well liked at the plant, according to a friend and co-worker, who spoke to The News Courier on condition of anonymity.

“I’ve never heard him say bad things about anyone,” the co-worker said. “He’d take the shirt off his back and give it to you. With his family, he gave all.”

After Wednesday’s incident, Federal-Mogul workers were on social media expressing their disbelief and shock about the incident.

“Shocked is a very, very light word for it,” Alan’s co-worker said. “You couldn’t just work with him and just be a co-worker — you’d work with him and pretty much he’d become your best friend. He’d help anybody.”

Federal-Mogul announced Thursday the establishment of a memorial fund in Alan’s honor.

“All of us at F-M are deeply saddened and want to do what we can to help Alan’s family,” said Collen Hanley, vice president of communications and investor relations for Federal-Mogul.

Donations can be made to the “Alan Brown Memorial Fund” with First National Bank of Pulaski. The account number is 3804527. For more information, contact the bank directly at 256-216-6373.

On Wednesday night, Johnson said secondary investigations into the accident would take place at the plant all-day Thursday. Johnson said there was no reason to believe the incident was anything other than an accident. Friends are planning a candlelight vigil for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at East Lawrence High School in Trinity.

Forklift-related incidents count for about 84 workplace fatalities each year, according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Roughly 16 percent of those deaths are accounted to persons crushed by the machine, according to the agency. Federal-Mogul has not been cited for any machine-operation violations in the last five years, according to a U.S. Department of Labor search.