Summary:
After a husband left his home to respond to a job-related emergency, his wife went to look for him at the work site because he wasn’t answering his cellphone.
The incident:
Jacob Dean, 44, an employee of Aghorn Energy, was spending some quality time with his wife, Natalee, 37, and their two children, Emma, 9, and Caleb, 6, when he received a phone call from his boss asking him to respond to a report of a problem at a pump house in Odessa, TX.
Jacob kissed his wife and kids goodbye, and then he drove to the pump house.
A few hours later, Natalee became concerned about her husband because he wasn’t answering his cellphone. She bundled the kids into the car and drove to the pump house.
Natalee arrived at the pump house, told the children to stay in the car and walked to the building.
As soon as she opened the door to the pump house, Natalee was overcome by a deadly gas. She fell to the ground, right next to the lifeless body of her spouse.The response:
When Jacob’s supervisor didn’t hear from him, he called the local sheriff’s office. Deputies who went to the pump house were aware of the hazardous chemical because they had monitors to detect the gas that had felled the Deans.
While there was nothing they could do for Jacob and Natalee, the deputies took the two children to the hospital, where they were treated and released.
The aftermath:
Friends of the family set up a GoFundMe page to help the Deans’ children.
“Jacob and Natalee were devoted and loving parents,” wrote the friends. “Please pray for their children who are young and will need some special help, understanding, love and guidance both now and in the times to come.”
(From the Dec. 30, 2019 issue of Safety Alert for Supervisors)