JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Israeli and son die in Queens

By Ben Harris · June 30, 2009

Here's a story that's not only tragic, but also kind of gross. The New York Post reports:

Three workers -- including a father and son -- were killed yesterday in a horrific accident at a Queens recycling plant when they fell into a sludge vat filled with toxic fumes, officials said.

The victims' bodies were pulled from the rank container at Regal Recycling in Jamaica -- a privately owned solid and putrescible (as in putrid) waste plant -- at around 2:30 p.m.

"I was in my office when I heard cries of 'Help! Help! Clear the road!' " said Alan Persaud, 33, the owner of a steel company across the street.

The father, Shlomo Dahan, 53, and his son, Harel, 23, who owned a sewer-cleaning company in South Ozone Park, were scouring the filthy pit loaded with noxious gases when the son was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes, sources said.

There was about four feet of detritus, including garbage, oil and runoff, in the hole -- which measures 3 feet in diameter by 18 feet deep -- at the time of the accident.

The father desperately tried to rescue his son by dropping a ladder into the hole at the facility on Douglas Avenue, near 170th Street, but he, too, was overcome.

When Rene Francisco Rivas, 52, a worker for Regal, noticed the men were missing, he tried to help them, but in doing so, also fell victim to the toxic gas, which was four times the lethal limit of 50 parts per million over a 10-minute period.

"They were in a sewer but they were sinking," Persaud said. "It's like quicksand. When the debris mixes with water, it's like mud."

Firefighters who arrived at 2:30 p.m. donned scuba gear to reach the men, but it was too late.