SULPHUR SPRINGS - City employees and community members in Sulphur Springs are mourning the loss of a worker who died after getting trapped in a manhole at Coleman Park Wednesday morning.
42-year-old Francisco Melendez was pronounced dead by Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Ronny Glossup just after 10 a.m. at Hopkins County Memorial Hospital.
Glossup tells KETR that Melendez’s foot became hung on a pipe, preventing him from exiting as water quickly filled the manhole. He had reportedly entered the hole to unplug a sewer line.
Melendez was pulled from the manhole at about 9:20 a.m., more than an hour after emergency crews were dispatched to the scene. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
“Just as we usually do in these [unusual death] circumstances we order an autopsy,” said Glossup.