CLYDE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — Two young men died, and several others were hospitalized after being exposed to toxic gas during a well-cleaning job in St. Clair County on Tuesday afternoon.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Michael Kammer Jr., 21, and Daniel Hagle, 20, were working at a recently sold home on Cribbins Road in Clyde Township when a chemical reaction created deadly hydrogen sulfide gas in the confined space beneath the home's porch.
"I collapsed, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't do nothing. I just froze. No mother should have never had to see that," said Jenny Kammer, Michael's mother, who watched as first responders retrieved her son's body.
Jenny Kammer and her husband, Michael, were too shaken for an on-camera interview, instead sharing their grief over the phone.
"He didn't have any clothes on. They brought him out naked because of all the chemicals on his clothing from the well," she said.
The workers were using muriatic acid to clean the well, a job Michael Kammer Jr. had been doing since his teen years, according to his father.
"This has been apparently a substance they used in the past, but this was a confined space, so when the acid interacted with a mineral or chemical in that well, it off-gassed," said St. Clair County Sheriff Mat King.
When Hagle saw Kammer become unresponsive, he called for help and then went into the well to try to rescue him. The hydrogen sulfide gas quickly overwhelmed both men.
"He saw his partner go down, and it was unresponsive to him calling for him, and he tried to get him out of the wells, and when he went in there, he was then in that confined space, and he was overwhelmed by the gases as well," King said.
First responders knew the scene was dangerous the moment they arrived.
"The deputies, at first, wanted to try to help, but they could smell gas from where they exited their vehicle near the road and realized they could obviously be overcome by these fumes as well. They had to back off until fire was able to get on scene and have the proper PPE to enter the area," King said.
Three other men working at the home were hospitalized for gas exposure and are expected to recover. Several first responders at the scene were decontaminated at a local hospital as a precaution.
Both Kammer and Hagle were rushed to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The medical examiner's office is still working to determine the official cause of death.
The families are now mourning and holding onto memories of their loved ones.
"He would give his shirt off his back to help anybody. He was engaged to get married later on this year," Jenny Kammer said.
"It's tragic, you know, we have two young men that were out working, working hard, you know, trying to make their way, and unfortunately, like I said, that variable of the confined space seems to be the difference," King said.
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