Orlando Welsh died helping attempt to save Darrelle N. Gauthier from suffocation, Yorktown, Virginia, September 5, 1996. While working in a below-deck holding tank at a naval station, Gauthier, 42, was overcome when liquid sewage began to enter the tank. He had shouted, attracting the attention of co-workers outside the tank. After one of the co-workers entered the tank in a rescue attempt but was also overcome, another member of the crew, Welsh, 44, maintenance worker, immediately entered. He too was overcome, as was another co-worker who entered the tank. Rescue workers removed all four men, but none of them could be revived. They had drowned.
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