June 29 NY Daily News - see FDNY Live Home site for video of Deputy Asst Chief John Sudnick
Three Die At Queens Sewage Plant From Toxic Fumes - Douglas Avenue Jamacia
NY Daily News 6/29/09
Three workers, including a Brooklyn father and his son, died Monday after apparently being overcome by poisonous gas while trying to unclog an 18-foot-deep cesspool at a Queens sewage plant, officials said.
Firefighters raced to Royal Waste Services Inc. on Douglas Ave. in Jamaica at 2:32 p.m., but the men were dead at the scene.
"They went in and got trapped in the sewer," said Abe Rosenthal, a friend of the victims. "This is unbelievable."
The men worked for the S. Dahan Sewer Specialists, which was hired by Royal Waste to unclog a drain at the bottom of the 18-foot-deep by 3-foot-wide drywell.
Police said one of the owners of the company, Shlomo Dahan, and his son, Harel, perished in the accident.
Harel Dahan, 23, lost his footing and fell into the cesspool while trying to unstop the drain with a long pipe plunger, cops said. The drain was apparently clogged by debris from recent rainstorms.
Shlomo Dahan, 49, climbed down the hole to rescue his son, but was overcome by toxic fumes, police said. When he failed to emerge or respond to cries of co-workers, Royal Waste employee Rene Francisco Rivas, 52, climbed down the hole and was overcome, too, cops said.
"It appears it was the high levels of hydrogen sulfide that overcame the victims," said FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief John Sudnik.
About 4 feet of putrid water had pooled at the bottom of the drywell, where fire officials measured poisonous levels of hydrogen sulfide gas - which has a distinctive "rotten egg" smell.
Fire officials said a 10-minute exposure to 50 to 100 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide is lethal. Firefighters found 200 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide in the hole.
Sudnik said firefighters arrived seven minutes after getting the call and had recovered all the bodies by 3:05 p.m.
A firefighter wearing a hazardous material suit retrieved the bodies from the hole.
"They found all three faced down [in the water]," Sudnik said. "That kind of atmosphere is very toxic."
Relatives of the men rushed to the scene, tearful and desperate for information. Officials ushered them into a trailer to break the news.
One man, identified as another of Shlomo Dahan's sons, began wailing when told of the deaths.
"They told me he was in an accident," Rivas' heartbroken son, Oscar, 27, told the Daily News. "They said he saw two men fall into the hole and he jumped to help them. He was always like that, always helping people."
Neighbors sat shiva last night with Shlomo Dahan's widow, Sarah, and his three surviving sons.
"The mother, she's shocked, she can't react," said neighbor Frieda Razabi, 40.
Razabi described Shlomo Dahan as a hardworking, religious man and was not surprised to hear that his last act was attempting to save his son. "He was such a father, overprotective," Razabi said.
A man who answered the phone at Royal Waste said he had no comment and hung up.
Records describe the plant, formerly known as the Regal Recycling Co. and run by M&P Reali Enterprises, as a solid waste transfer station capable of processing 600 tons of putrescible waste a day.
In 2005, a immigrant from El Salvador was crushed to death at the plant when a Caterpillar tractor backed over him.
The death of 46-year-old Effraine Calderone led the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to cite the company for a violation. OSHA found the driver was operating the tractor in a hazardous way and that the tractor's cracked windows distorting the operator's vision.
