Incident Report

Subject:                     Body of Nashville Tank Inspector Recovered

Date of Email report:   Fri 05/02/2010

Report Detail:

The Nashville Fire Department has identified the man whose body was discovered on the bottom of a tank at a North Nashville chemical distribution company. The department's hazardous materials team was called to the Ashland Chemical Company on Clifton Street at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday. They found 49-year-old Dan Dugan of Rock Hill, S.C. at the bottom of a tank that once held the solvent Heptane.  Dugan is part owner of D&D Construction out of Rock Hill. Ashland hired him to do routine maintenance on the tank. Firefighters had to perch a ladder truck over the tank and lower two crew members into the tanks to retrieve Dugan's body. They finally were able to do that at 5:20 p.m.  Nashville Fire District Chief Charles Shannon said it was a tough task for the hazardous materials team to complete.  "To be able to get in and get this gentleman out, in what we consider a reasonable amount of time. Because understand, that hole is only 18 inches to 22 inches and our people are going in protective gear. It's very tight, you don't have a lot of room. It just takes a lot of physical work," said Shannon. Dugan went into the tank around 8:15 a.m., and no one had heard from him all day. The private contractor was found unresponsive in the tank hours later. Metro Police detectives did respond to Ashland Chemical Company. They are called out whenever there is an unexplained death. Representatives from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will also investigate the circumstances that led up to this deadly workplace incident. The coroner will do an autopsy on Dugan's body to determine a cause of death.

Additional Documentation:

Several videos are available here: http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=11921590