Three killed, one overcome by sewer gas

Three workmen died and one was injured while cleaning the sewerage pipe at a private company in Sharjah's industrial area. A Sharjah Civil Defence spokesman told Gulf News yesterday that one worker was hired by the company to clean the pipe. "The worker asked three of his friends to help."

When the workers removed the cover, they were immediately hit by a powerful odour coming from the pipe. "The man who went inside the two-and-a-half-metre diameter pipe fainted and died. When the second worker went to rescue him, he also died," the spokesman said.

One of the men went to fetch a ladder, hoping to use it to rescue his friends. "However, when he came back, he found that the third worker had fallen inside the pipe, and was in difficulty." The third man died later at the hospital.

When police and Civil Defence arrived, they found two men had died and two had fainted. "We rushed them all to Al Qasimi Hospital, but only one man could be revived," the spokesman said.

The gases emanating from the sewerage pipe were very poisonous, he said. Even hours later, a huge amount of poisonous gas was pouring out of the pipe. "Our pollution measuring instrument indicated that the area around the pipe had a very high level of gas even hours after the accident took place."