MIAMI, May 21 (UPI) -- Investigators blame a buildup of argon welding gas inside a cargo ship for the deaths of three Florida dockworkers.
The three men suffocated in the enclosed compartment where a gas leak had pushed the oxygen out of the air.
The Miami Herald said Port Everglades supervisor Hayman Sooknanan, 47, had gone inside the compartment early Tuesday to check on a reported chemical leak. When he failed to return or answer radio calls another man went to look for him. When that man didn't come out, the third victim went inside and was killed as well.
''You don't know that you're even being exposed to it,'' Erik Talley, chairman of the American Chemical Society's Division on Chemical Health and Safety, told the Herald. "Your heart rate will start increasing but you don't have time to realize the signs and symptoms. You just pass out.''
The cargo ship was abandoned until a hazardous materials team was able to remove the leaking tank with a crane.
