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Freak Accident Leaves 2 Dead In Dry Cleaning Tank

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Dec 2, 2007 6:47 am US/Eastern

Freak Accident Leaves 2 Dead In Dry Cleaning Tank

First Industrial Accident Ever At Site, Was Accident Free For Over A Century

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LINDEN, N.J. (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Two workers cleaning a 20,000-gallon tank at a Linden dry cleaning plant died Saturday. (File)
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Fumes turned deadly and two men were found dead Saturday at the bottom of a massive vat for storing toxic dry cleaning chemicals in Linden, New Jersey.

A chemical stew is how police described what was inside the 20,000-gallon tank at the laundry cleaning plant. Two men went down a ladder into the vat to clean it and did not come out alive.

Devastated friends and family say one of the two men was a truck driver for the company who cleaned the tank on weekends to make extra money.

"He was a good person," one friend told CBS 2 HD.

A supervisor at North East Linen discovered the bodies around 2pm. Hazmat teams arrived and found Methane levels were too high and oxygen levels were too low.

The tank cleaners are supposed to wear protective gear, including masks, but investigators say no masks were found on the two men or anywhere near them.

"I don't believe there was any apparatus observed within any immediate area of the bodies," said Lt. Raymond Tyra, of the Linden Police Dept.

The large tank holds a highly toxic dry cleaning solution, which is diluted with water and other chemicals before being flushed out of the tank and in to the sewer system.

Police and neighbors say they can't remember this kind of thing happening in this industrial area before.

"I'm surprised that two people died," said Linden resident Carlos Pinto.

Autopsies will be done, as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigates how safe this industrial workplace is.

Laundry and dry cleaning facilities have been at the location since the 1890s, and this was its first industrial accident.

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