Two dead from toxic fumes at Corozal well

Corozal police are investigating the deaths of two men who were found in an abandoned well five hours after they were hired to clean the water hole. According to forty-six year old Antonio Campos, a farmer from the Corozal District, on Tuesday he hired thirty year old Herman Perfilio Sanchez and seventeen year old Marcos Ernesto Chi to clean the well on his Chan Pine Ridge farm. Campos told police that he left the men around ten that morning, but when he returned at three in the afternoon, he found Sanchez and Chi barely alive and foaming at the mouth.

Campos says he tried to assist, but he soon was overwhelmed by fumes he encountered in the well. Campos immediately contacted the police who along with the fire department removed the men. Sanchez and Chi were rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital, but were pronounced dead on arrival. Authorities say they are awaiting the results of a post mortem but they do not suspect foul play. Instead it is believed the men were overcome by toxic fumes. It is not the first time that fumes have killed people working around wells. A similar incident occurred several years ago in which three young men, also from the Corozal District, died after they entered a well to clean it.