Two Long Island teens died today after falling into a cesspool in a friend’s backyard and being overcome by fumes. That is definitely an awful way to die. Not that any way is ever good but man oh man. RIP and read on for details.
(NYP) – Both Eduardo Vanegas-Fuentes, 16, of Holtsville and Edgar Calderon-Castro, 19, of Farmingville died Thursday morning at Stony Brook University Medical Center, Suffolk County police said.
Both had been in critical condition since late Wednesday following the bizarre episode at the Farmingville house of their 16-year-old friend, Samuel Suarez.
Cops say the three teens had lifted the concrete lid off the cesspool around 8 p.m., not aware of the what it was.
Vanegas-Fuentes then lost his footing and fell through the three-foot-wide opening.
Officials say the pool is approximately 16-feet deep and was half-full at the time. High levels of methane gas often collect within septic tanks, police said.
Suarez ran into the house to call 911, and Calderon-Castro jumped into the cesspool after his now unconscious friend. He held onto a hose Suarez had thrown down but was also quickly overcome by fumes.
Firefighters pulled the teens to safety using hooked poles and rushed them to the hospital.
Last year, a 17-year-old died after falling into a cesspool at a Smithtown Dunkin’ Donuts. And in 2007, a Long Island landscaper died after driving a lawn mower into a cesspool in Deer Park, MI.
