Methane and sewer gas.

[John Kogel]

My brother was renting a cabin in the bush on a local contractor's property.

For the septic tank, they had buried a steel tank beside the house and I imagine there was a drain field of some kind. When the toilet stopped flushing altogether, the contractor's son was sent to fix the plumbing. Upon digging out the top of the tank, he discovered that dad had neglected to provide a lid, so he goes and gets the acetylene cutting torch and squats down to make the cut.

The blast tore the top of the tank wide open and sent the lad flying. Luckily no one was hurt, but there was crap and toilet paper hanging in the trees for months afterwards. And the toilet flushed real good after that. []

[Stephen Lagueux]

we often hear those kinds of stories. One goes in the septic tank for whatever reason and passes out. Another one goes in too to get the first guy out and passes out too and both dies. That is one of the thing that they teach in confined spaces entry class, never dive in to get someone else out. There are actual procedures to follow.

had that poor guy known about those dangers of working in confined spaces, he may not have went in in the first place or would have taken proper precautions.

My own mechanic blew up is entire garage while torch cutting in the pit.