A Key Largo firefighter who came close to death trying in vain to save three underground utility workers felled by noxious fumes beneath a neighborhood street last January is suing those men’s employers for negligence.
Leonardo Moreno, 32, an eight-year veteran of the Key Largo Volunteer Fire Department, did not hesitate before descending 15 feet into a manhole on Long Key Road in the Lake Surprise Estates subdivision Jan. 16 to save what he was told was one man drowning. When he reached the bottom, he quickly realized the situation was different, and far worse, than what he anticipated.
Two men were floating face-down in a couple of feet of water.