Unknown gas kills man

Press, 6 July 1988, Page 9

Unknown gas kills man

PA Auckland A Tuakau man died yesterday when trying to rescue an unconscious workmate from a sump at a factory which processes meat wastes. The police said that after inhaling fumes, the man died at the bottom of a 5m sump at the factory in the South Auckland town of Tuakau. He was Michael Gofton, aged 39, a foreman. The man he tried to rescue and another man were reported in a serious condition in Middlemore • Hospital last evening. /Both were said to be £ —

suffering from inhalation of gas. Mr Len Ryder, a director of the Waikato byproducts plant where the accident happened, said Mr Gofton’s death was devastating. He was at a loss to explain how the routine emptying of water from a settlement pond into Waikato River went wrong. “We do this every two or three months. We have got no idea what these fumes are,” he said. ’ Constable Lionel Peter: sen said Mr Gofton sent d fitter, Mr Wayne Ward, into the sump to open an apparently stuck valve.