DPS: Toxic gas may have killed 3

Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services firefighters and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. crew assist DFEMS-Search and Rescue Unit and Hazmat Unit in retrieving the bodies of three Filipino workers from the 24-foot sewer well at CUC’s lift station at Pakpak Beach in San Antonio on Friday before noon. Investigators believe the workers died due toxic gas exposure and drowning. (Derek Gersonde)

Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Derek Gersonde identified the victims as Ricky Quijano, 47; Amid Tapon, 41; and Danilo Paglinawan, 53, all of them Filipinos.

The victims worked for USA Fanter Corp. Ltd., a private company contracted by CUC to perform rehabilitation work at the sewer system.

The three were killed while doing repairs inside a 24-foot sewer well at the CUC lift station at Pakpak Beach in San Antonio on Friday before noon.

DFEMS Search and Rescue Unit and the Hazmat Unit in protective gear pulled out the three bodies from the sewer pump well and brought them to the Commonwealth Health Center, where a doctor pronounced them dead Friday at 1:32pm. Department of Public Safety acting spokesman Sgt. Jason Tarkong identified the physician as Dr. Marty Rohringer.

Tarkong said the preliminary findings show that the three workers were exposed to high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas inside the well.

Tarkong said other factors include wastewater presence that was about 6 to 7 inches deep, which may have possibly caused the victims to drown.

“This case is still under investigation. Exact cause of death cannot be determined unless an autopsy is conducted,” Tarkong said.

He said preliminary investigation indicates the possibility of accidental death.

DPS 911 received a call on Friday at 11:11am from a CUC employee who requested emergency assistance about a worker who had fallen unconscious inside a sewer pump well at Pakpak Beach in San Antonio.

Gersonde said after receiving the call from DPS 911 dispatch, firefighters/medics from Susupe, Garapan, Koblerville, and Kagman fire stations along with Search and Rescue Unit and Hazmat Unit immediately responded to the scene.

Tarkong said the first victim had descended into the tank to unclog a rubber seal and open a drainage.

On the way back up to ground level, the first victim lost consciousness and fell back into the tank.

The two other co-workers went down into the tank to help the first victim. The two workers, however, also lost consciousness inside the tank.

While DFEMS were conducting the rescue operation and police and CUC were conducting investigations, police officers and cadets blocked the southbound vehicles along Chalan Tun Thomas P. Sablan Road near the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio and the northbound vehicles near the Mobil gas station at the corner of Chalan Monsignor Martinez Road in Koblerville.

Traffic flow went back to normal along Chalan Tun Thomas P. Sablan Road after police removed the blockage at 1:30pm.

After CUC staff and police officers completed the at-the-scene investigation Friday afternoon, passersby could still smell a strong odor coming out of the well.

In a statement, USA Fanter Corp. president Steve Qian said the company will work wholeheartedly with authorities who are or will be investigating “this very unfortunate and regrettable tragedy.”

“Now is not the time for statements to the press. Now is the time for prayers and to console the families of our co-workers we lost,” said Qian in the statement.

He said the company “reserves any comments at this time and defer to the authorities to comment publicly” on this accident.

Qian said the company’s concern is to pay respects to their co-workers and ensure that their remains are properly and promptly repatriated to their homes and to their respective families.