By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY — Three brothers died of suffocation inside an underground water tank they were working on in Cuartero town, Capiz province.
Firemen from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) help in retrieving one of the three bodies of the brothers who died inside an underground water tank in Cuartero town, Capiz province. (PDRMMO Capiz/Facebook/ MANILA BULLETIN)
The police of Cuartero town identified the victims as Jerson Vargas, 25; Neil Jun Vargas, 19; and Wilbert Vargas, 15. The brothers from Sapian town were workers of a construction firm hired to build an additional school building of Maindang National High School.
Police Staff Sergeant Edmer Dayalo told Manila Bulletin Thursday that the incident occurred Wednesday after one of the brothers went down to the underground water tank to clean it. But when he failed to come out, the two brothers went down to check.
A fourth worker attempted to help the three brothers, but came back up after not being able to breathe from a very strong odor.
Dayalo, who is the lead police investigator, said it is still uncertain what caused the brothers to suffocate and die. But based on the testimony of the fourth worker, it may have been from the various chemicals inside the water tank.
It took combined forces of police, firemen, Capiz Emergency Response Team (CERT), and
Capiz Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) to retrieve the bodies of the three Vargas brothers.
Police are probing the culpability of the construction firm. But Dayalo said the firm’s project site coordinator told authorities there was no official order to clean the water tank and that one of the brothers did it on his own.
Firemen from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) help in retrieving one of the three bodies of the brothers who died inside an underground water tank in Cuartero town, Capiz province. (PDRMMO Capiz/Facebook/ MANILA BULLETIN)
The police of Cuartero town identified the victims as Jerson Vargas, 25; Neil Jun Vargas, 19; and Wilbert Vargas, 15. The brothers from Sapian town were workers of a construction firm hired to build an additional school building of Maindang National High School.
Police Staff Sergeant Edmer Dayalo told Manila Bulletin Thursday that the incident occurred Wednesday after one of the brothers went down to the underground water tank to clean it. But when he failed to come out, the two brothers went down to check.
A fourth worker attempted to help the three brothers, but came back up after not being able to breathe from a very strong odor.
Dayalo, who is the lead police investigator, said it is still uncertain what caused the brothers to suffocate and die. But based on the testimony of the fourth worker, it may have been from the various chemicals inside the water tank.
It took combined forces of police, firemen, Capiz Emergency Response Team (CERT), and
Capiz Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) to retrieve the bodies of the three Vargas brothers.
Police are probing the culpability of the construction firm. But Dayalo said the firm’s project site coordinator told authorities there was no official order to clean the water tank and that one of the brothers did it on his own.