Tarrytown, NY public works employee who died in manhole was also volunteer firefighter. Update on deaths of John Kelly & Anthony Ruggiero.

More from Tarrytown-Sleep Hollow Patch

It turns out that 48-year-old Anthony Ruggiero and 51-year-old John Kelly were childhood friends. Both were volunteer firefighters in Tarrytown. But at the time he died city officials say Ruggiero was operating as a foreman for the Village of Tarrytown’s Public Works Department. Ruggiero had gone into a 15-foot manhole behing the Consolidated Engine Company around 6:30 PM Monday checking out a clogged sewer line and collapsed. Firefighter John Kelly went in after him. Both men died.  

Here’s more from WCBS-TV:

Anthony Ruggiero, 48, and John Kelly, 51, childhood friends, both fell victim to toxic fumes they encountered while in a waste sewer line, 15-feet below ground.

Investigators will try to determine exactly why Ruggiero and Kelly went down the manhole without a breathing apparatus. Most protocols for manhole work require an air monitor, air blowers, safety harnesses and a lost list of rules and regulations to safely enter the space.

Officials said the oxygen levels in the manhole were dangerously low — about 14-percent, and 20.8-percent is needed to sustain life.

First, no one may enter a manhole until the air quality is checked, and then levels must be constantly monitored by a co-worker for methane and other deadly gases.

The worker must go down the hole wearing a harness  attached to a winch that can easily be operated by a single safety operator — which makes it easy to rescue the worker if problems develop.

Any rescuers who go in must wear a breathing apparatus.

Police said Ruggiero went down the manhole behind Consolidated Engine Company 77 at around 6:30 p.m. Monday in his capacity as a Department of Public Works foreman to checkout a nearby blockage.

When he didn’t come back up, Kelly went down after him. He was also overcome by the toxic fumes and lost consciousness.

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