"They lost their lives trying to help one another" on the Madeleine

Leaked argon gas in ship kills three at Florida port
By Brian Haas and Andrew Tran / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Wednesday, May 21, 2008

PORT EVERGLADES, Fla. - One by one, the workers descended into the hold of the Madeleine at Dock 31, undeterred by the possibility of a gas leak below.

As the third and final worker went down the ladder to try and save his two co-workers, he was warned.

"I told him don’t go down," recalled Tarson Bodden. "You won’t come back up."


Bodden watched the third man descend and then scramble half-way up the ladder only to collapse. His body landed next to his two colleagues.

"They were trying to help each other," Bodden said, gripping his hardhat. "They lost their lives trying to help one another. It’s terrible."

Three fathers,

Hayman Sooknanan, 47;

James Cason, 43; and

Rene Robert Dutertre Jr., 25,

died in the bowels of the cargo ship Tuesday, suffocated by argon gas, which made the air in the hold unbreathable.

Local, state and federal authorities are investigating what caused a leak in the tank of argon, and whether anyone broke safety laws or regulations.

"If you were following OSHA standards, you would not have accidents or deaths," said Michael Wald, spokesman for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Federal regulations require gases like argon be kept only in well-ventilated areas to avoid safety issues.

The three men’s employer, Florida Transportation Services, is one of about a dozen companies at Port Everglades that helps ships dock and move cargo. The company has been subject to dozens of safety complaints over the past five years and had at least one other death in an industrial accident during that time.
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