A 48-year-old man injured while working inside a septic tank is recovering in Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, says an officer with the Red Deer Rural RCMP detachment.
Emergency crews were called to a rural home on the west side of Gull Lake at about 4 p.m. on Tuesday when a homeowner found the man lying unconscious.
He had been applying resin inside a newly installed septic tank, said Cpl. Andrew Shepherd.
Extracted from the tank by members of the Bentley fire department, the man was originally to have been taken by ground ambulance to Red Deer and then transferred to Calgary via STARS air ambulance, said Shepherd.
However, upon assessment at the Red Deer hospital’s helipad, it was determined that he was in better condition than expected and did not need to go on to Calgary.
Whether he will make a full recovery is still unknown, said Shepherd.
It’s not yet clear whether he was overcome by fumes or had simply run out of oxygen, said Shepherd.
Occupational Health and Safety is trying to determine whether the man was working alone and whether he was wearing proper breathing equipment for inside a confined space, said Chris Chodan, an public affairs officer for Occupational Health and Safety in Edmonton.
The man’s employer, Focus Industries, has been ordered to stop all work in confined spaces while OH&S determines whether it has the proper training and safety protocols in place for people assigned to that type of work, said Chodan.