3 men die of suffocation in Pangasinan deepwell

LINGAYEN, Philippines — Three men died of suffocation inside a deep well of a piggery farm in Natividad, Pangasinan shortly before noon Tuesday.

Senior Inspector Rizalino Suarez, Natividad police chief, identified the victims as Noli Boy Rillorta, 30; Arman Mejia, 19; and Crisanto Pamparo, all workers of Lucky 888 Farms in Barangay (village) San Macario in Natividad town.

Suarez said Rillorta descended into the 14-meter well at about 10 a.m. Tuesday to repair a submersible water pump that they used in the piggery farm.

But at about 10:30 a.m. Mejia, who was at the top of the well, saw Rillorta lose consciousness.  He then immediately went down the well to rescue Mejia.

“He has barely touched Rillorta when Mejia also lost consciousness and fell,” Suarez said.

Seeing Rillorta and Mejia unconscious, Pamparo also went down the well to rescue them. But he, too, lost consciousness.

Suarez said that when he and his team arrived in the area a few minutes later, a volunteer descended into the well but quickly climbed up because he had difficulty breathing while down there.

“I told my team that we should be equipped to retrieve the bodies,” Suarez said.

He said he asked that a large electric fan be trained at the well’s entrance to blow air into the well and borrowed two compressor pumps with its hoses lowered down the well for the rescuers to use for breathing.

The bodies of the three men were finally taken out of the well at 2:46 p.m.

Suarez said that they were immediately examined by Dr. Felix Briones, Natividad health officer, who was earlier summoned to the piggery farm.

But Briones, Suarez said, declared them dead because of suffocation.