Lack of training, command presence and a failure to appreciate an extremely hazardous situation severely sickened and almost killed a firefighter trying to save three utility workers who were overcome by toxic fumes in a drainage hole 15 feet beneath a Key Largo street in January.
Those workers died, and Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department firefighter Leonardo Moreno almost became the fourth fatality as he, too, was immediately hit with a deadly mixture of high levels of hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide as he entered the manhole on Long Key Road in the Lake Surprise Estates subdivision the morning of Jan. 16.