Agostino Cobuccio

Agostino Cobuccio died saving Alfonso Santino from suffocation, Boston, Massachusetts, July 25, 1927. Santino, 42, laborer, was overcome by marsh gas as he was being pulled by a rope out of a foundation excavation, which was a hole three feet in diameter and 26 feet deep. He fell to the bottom. Cobuccio, 37, laborer, who knew there was marsh gas in the hole, grasped the rope and was lowered to the bottom. He fastened the rope around Santino, and Santino was quickly drawn out of the hole, but Cobuccio was overcome as Santino was being raised. A workman then slid down the rope to get Cobuccio and was overcome on the bottom by the gas almost immediately. A little later the hole was ventilated. A man then descended and roped Cobuccio and the other man in turn, and they were drawn up. Cobuccio was dead, but Santino and the other man were revived.