The utility vault looked like any other -- a cement shell the size of a walk in closet sunk into the ground outside a sawmill in Cottage Grove, Oregon. It housed a check valve designed to prevent back flow of contaminated water in the municipal water system. About sixteen inches of water stood on the vault floor, water in which leaves and sticks rotted, turning the water into a tea-brown colour. The vault hadn't been opened for several months, and the air inside was stagnant, musty and deadly.

To Ted, a back flow device inspector, the vault looked normal enough. It looked just as it had on his previous inspection visits. Maybe there was a bit more water on the floor, but this was B.C. -- water is everywhere. So Ted moved the manhole cover to one side and lowered his ladder down into the vault.

No one saw him enter, no one saw him enter, no one heard him drop to his knees and fall face down in the water. no one knew he was in trouble for at least half an hour when a truck driver walked over to the manhole, looked inside and saw a man down. He ran off to call for help.

A shipping supervisor and a maintenance worker from the adjacent sawmill heard the call for help. They ran over and climbed down the ladder. The supervisor drew a few breaths and he, too, fell face down in the water. The maintenance worker then passed out, but he fell backward against the wall with his head out of the water. A lucky break that saved his life.

Police arrived, climbed down the ladder, inhaled the air, and had to be helped out. Paramedics arrived, and they also climbed down the ladder and had to be helped out. Finally, firefighters arrived and donned respirators. They climbed down and began to remove the victims.

The next day the headline in the local paper declared, "mysterious Gas Kills Two," but an investigation revealed no mysterious gas. Ted and the shipping supervisor died because rotting leaves pulled most of the oxygen out of the air in the vault and displaced it with carbon dioxide. Without sufficient oxygen they passed out and drowned.

On that day these two men became two of about 300 workers who would die in a confined space that year. If you look at case reports of these accidents, you'll notice many similarities. Most striking is the fact that most accidents and deaths happen because the people within the confined space did not recognize the hazards. The people acknowledged in this accident didn't know that rotting leaves could kill them. The shipping supervisor didn't know that climbing into a vault without knowing the oxygen level is like crossing a street wearing a blindfold.

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