Sometime in the late afternoon of July 3rd, two workers entered the water main vault at the intersection of Highways 70 and 100 in North Carolina. The two were employees of a Backhoe and Landscaping business and were working with several employees to extend a 24″ main water line. While the vault they entered and died in was not set by the company, it was the vault that housed the valve that they were required to pressure test with the new water line. They had begun to pressurize the line in preparation for the formal pressure test of the line that was scheduled for Monday, July 7th, with the City Inspector who owned the lines. Although a search was begun on the evening of July 3rd, the area of the vault was not clearly visible due to mud and the material spread during grass sowing and the two employees were not found until the 4th of July at approximately 11:00 a.m.
Both employees were overcome by the lack of oxygen in the confined space and died of asphyxia.
