Lillard W. Shaffer, Sr., helped to save George D. Shaffer from suffocation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 4, 1968. George, 18, apprentice, was working inside a horizontally cylindrical tank 30 feet long and six feet in diameter which formerly had been used for the storage of naphtha. He was overcome by the fumes. Shaffer, 42, maintenance man, and two other men climbed onto the tank to a 15-inch manhole in the top. Shaffer lowered himself into the tank. The other two men were too large to get through the opening. Fumes were noticeable as Shaffer dragged George six feet to beneath the manhole and attempted in vain to lift him to the top of the tank. A man’s belt was dropped to Shaffer, who secured it around George’s wrist. As Shaffer then again lifted George, one of the men reached through the opening and obtained a hold on the belt. With Shaffer boosting him from below, George was drawn out of the tank. While the men were lowering George to the ground, Shaffer lost consciousness. One of the men inserted the oxygen hose from a welding rig into a drainage hole in the bottom of the tank and turned on the oxygen. A rescue squad arrived. A man wearing a mask entered the tank and secured ropes to Shaffer, who then was drawn out. He and George were hospitalized. They recovered.
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