Official: Worker who died in NY sewer and fireman killed in rescue attempt didn’t test air

Official: Men who died in NY sewer didn’t test air

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — An official in a New York City suburb says a sewer worker who suffocated in a manhole on Labor Day went against his training by not testing the air before going in. A firefighter who tried to rescue him also perished.

Anthony Ruggiero went to clear a blocked sewer in Tarrytown, a village 20 miles north of New York City.

Village Administrator Michael Blau said Thursday the Department of Public Works had no written policy but the worker had been taught to use an air monitor before entering confined spaces. He says firefighter John Kelly had no protective equipment when he went into the manhole to help his friend.

Blau says a public works foreman had obtained an air monitor and declared he’d go in.

A poisonous sewer gas is suspected as the cause of the men’s deaths.