Paul Cossalter

Paul Cossalter died attempting to save Joseph P. Kimmes III, Scott A. Kimmes, and Harold N. Olsen from suffocation, Superior, Wisconsin, November 1, 2007. Joseph, 44, and his brother, Scott, 40, were replacing a pump inside a lift station at a landfill. Working with them was Olsen, 47. The lift station was a 20-foot-deep, belowground chamber in which water was collecting at the bottom. Joseph lost consciousness in the lift station, the atmosphere of which was found to contain lethal levels of hydrogen sulfide gas. Scott then climbed into the lift station, followed by Olsen. A friend of the Kimmes brothers, Cossalter, 41, contractor, had stopped at the worksite and was present when Joseph was overcome. He told another man at the scene to call for help, and then he too climbed into the lift station and was overcome. Rescue personnel arrived and, equipped with safety gear, entered the lift station after ventilating it and removed the four men, all of whom had been asphyxiated.