Eric Woelfel, top, and Eric “Rabbit” Hickey pose quickly for a picture aboard the Karlissa A barge on Monday. Both Oregonians now are working for Titan.-World Photo by Susan Chambers

Titan Savage employs people from all over the world, but one of the guys taking a few slices out of the New Carissa is from right here in the Bay Area.

Eric Hickey, who lives in North Bend, started working with Titan about four months ago when a friend working for West Coast Contractors of Coos Bay asked him if he would like help out with the barge prep work the contractor was doing for the salvage company. Hickey had been driving a concrete truck, but because of rainy weather, business had been slow.

“I was just sitting at home,” he said.

So he took the offer of a few weeks’ work. That few weeks turned into a permanent position with Titan, based on his work performance during prep.

The hometown guy is taking a torch to the famed shipwreck. Hickey spends his days suspended from a harness, burning through pieces of the rusting stern. He said working on the tilting wreck is a little disorienting, but he isn’t worried about taking a tumble.

“We’re always tied up, so you can’t fall far,” he said.

Hickey, who has lived in the Bay Area for more than a decade, said he remembered when the New Carissa ran aground, but the incident slipped his mind until Titan cruised into Coos Bay.

“I kind of forget about it until they showed up with all those legs and barges,” he said.

It wasn’t long before Hickey had found his place among the crew. Some of the crew members have nicknames, bestowed on them by other workers. Hickey is now known as “Rabbit,” though he won’t disclose why he was given that designation.

“It just happened,” he said, smiling.

Hickey doesn’t know where Titan will send him, but is having a blast working on the wreck.

“I just take it one day at a time,” he said.