KIMBERLEY, B.C. – One of the four people found dead Wednesday at Teck Cominco’s decommissioned Sullivan mine had been missing for two days, authorities said.
The search for the missing man – a contractor who had been testing acid-tainted water at an enclosed pumping station – apparently led to the three other deaths, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. No one reported him missing until Wednesday morning, the agency said.
Mayor Jim Ogilvie said an employee of Teck Cominco Ltd., which owns the old mine, discovered the man floating in the well. After calling 911 to report a drowning, the worker tried to help the man but was overcome himself, possibly by poisonous gas, Ogilvie said.
Two paramedics from the B.C. Ambulance Service who responded to the call also were overcome. Their bodies were found by members of the Kimberley Fire Department who followed up the initial emergency call.
“When they got to the site of the emergency … they found there were four people down at the time,” said Ogilvie. “They donned their gear to go into hazardous atmospheres and confined spaces. … They removed three people and one was left.”
The three were taken to a hospital but were pronounced dead. Police confirmed one body was still at the site.
Ogilvie said he was told the four may have succumbed to hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas fatal even in minute quantities. Hydrogen sulfide gas is flammable and smells like rotten eggs. It is found in mineral waters and rotting materials.
Teck Cominco spokesman David Parker said the company did not yet have details of the accident. He confirmed that the dead included a Teck employee, an outside consultant contracted to work on the mine’s decommissioning and two ambulance paramedics.
Ogilvie said all four were from Kimberley, a mountain community of about 6,600 about 300 miles east of Vancouver.
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