Tri-City Herald
March 17, 1968
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Four Pasco boys died of carbon-monoxide poisoning Friday - 12 feet underground in a storm sewer where a blaze had been extinguished earlier by unsuspecting firemen.
They were Bradley Cheney, 14, of 2821 Wilcox Drive; Danny Eldhardt, 15, of 1624 W. Yakima St.; Donald Haines, 13, of 4305 W. Ruby St. and Frederick Zeller, 13, of 2620 W. Sylvester St.
All were students at Isaac Stevens Junior High School.
FIRE FOUGHT
At 1 p.m. firemen put out a blaze in the 48-inch pipe at A Street and Pacific Avenue. Eight hours later police received calls from parents reporting their sons missing.
The boys left home about noon intending to have a wiener roast at the juvenile pond and to explore "as far as we can go" inside the sewer pipe.
Their bodies were found about 11 p.m. sprawled together beneath a manhole cover at Lucus Avenue and Bonneville Street, .8 mile from where they entered the pipe.
UNCOVERED
The sewer outlet at the south end of Illinois Avenue near the fish pond has no protective covering.
Origin of the fire is unknown. No refuse was found at the site of the blaze, to indicate a purposely set fire, said Irving Kau, assistant public works director, who inspected the scene yesterday.
A pile of burned matches and a cigarette butt were found on the ledge beneath the manhole cover at Illinois Avenue and A Street.
One boy had two books of matches in his pants pocket.
LIKE GAS
Kau said the one-inch tar lining in the sewer line is flammable. "It melts and burns like gasoline once it gets going," he explained.
There had been no fires reported in the three-year-old pipe until Friday.
Police received no complaints of anyone playing inside the "tube," but a number of youngsters said yesterday it had been a popular test of bravery to see how far they could crawl inside.
The goal was to sign a name farther along in the pipe than the last name recorded.
"Zeller" was chalked inside the first manhole cover.
'THANK GOD'
After hearing about all the kids who've been in there, I thank God more of them didn't die," said Victor Zeller, Frederick's father.
"I hope now the city will put some kind of heavy wire mesh over the opening."
Kau said, "You bet there's going to be a grid put on the end of that pipe - Monday."
Zeller theorized, from the positions in which the bodies were found, that the boys had been standing on one another's shoulders trying to raise the 150-pound manhole cover when they died.
BIKE FOUND
Eldhardt's glasses were on a ledge. His bicycle, found inside the pipe, gave police their first indication the boys were inside.
"I don't know what made them go." Zeller said. "Fred was afraid of the dark."
He carried a six-volt lantern. The others had flashlights.
Haines told Kay Martin, 13, Flamingo Village, he kept food inside the pipe "in case of a riot or bombing."
He and Cheney had been expected at a surprise birthday party in her honor Friday night.
HEARS NEWS
Mrs. Bryce Cheny had been worried her son hadn't come home to change his clothes before the party. She learned the reason from a radio braodcast before anyone else could tell her.
At first firemen believed the blaze was caused by the ignition of oil dripped from a truck, said Fire Chief Lyle Cooney. No investigation was held Friday afternoon.
The manhole cover under which the boys were found was raised during the fire, but because of smoke and darkness they were not seen. It was later assumed they were then already dead.
'OTHER ENGAGEMENTS' SAVE 2 FRIENDS OF VICTIMS
"I told him not to light any fires in there. I said carbon-monoxide would get him."
The warning was ignored. And 24 hours later four Pasco youths were dead, suffocated by billowing black smoke which turned their two-mile trip under the streets of Pasco into a race for life.
It was a race they lost.
Fourteen-year-old Gary Overholt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Overholt, Flamingo Trailer Court, issued the warning in class at Isaac Stevens Junior High Thursday. He admits that despite his own warning, he might have gone along with the four who died. Except that he found he had to sell circus tickets to raise money for the Tri-City Drum and Bugle corps, in which he plays the French horn.
ESCAPE
Just as close an escape was that of 14-year-old Alan Stromseth, son of Mr. and MRs. Alvin Stromseth, also of the Flamingo Trailer Court. He, Gary and one of the dead boys, Fred Zeller, were budies.
Alan had called Fred Friday morning. He wanted him to go fishing. But Fred had other plans. He and some other friends were either going to fly a rocket, or go through the sewer pipes.
At Alan's elbow during the conversation was his mother. There were chores to be done. And he had a 2 p.m. dental appointment to keep. The pipe trip was out.
Alan stayed home. And lived.
Fred and his friends chose the pipe over the rocket. And died.
Perhaps the last of the dead boys' freinds to see them alive was Mark Ray, 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ray, 1515 Shoshone St., Pasco. Mark went to a neighbor's Friday about 10:30 a.m. to borrow a brake shoe for his bike.
Fred and his three friends were across the street. Their conversation consisted only of "Hi." But mark said he knew the four were heading for the pipe, for they went there most weekends, he said. They thought it great fun.
APPEAL
It didn't appeal to Mark. He'd never been in the pipe. Neither had Gary. But he'd heard the boys talk about it. How you have to walk stooped over. How sometimes your back aches so much you hurry through the blackness to the next manhole to straighten up.
It was at such a manhole that the four, running away from billowing, black, oily smoke Friday, reached for a pin point of light filtering through a fingersized hole in the heavy manhole cover six feet above their heads.
But they were too late.
The light went out.
Return to Old Newspapers Index
Return to Old Newspapers Index
Four Pasco boys died of carbon-monoxide poisoning Friday - 12 feet underground in a storm sewer where a blaze had been extinguished earlier by unsuspecting firemen.
They were Bradley Cheney, 14, of 2821 Wilcox Drive; Danny Eldhardt, 15, of 1624 W. Yakima St.; Donald Haines, 13, of 4305 W. Ruby St. and Frederick Zeller, 13, of 2620 W. Sylvester St.
All were students at Isaac Stevens Junior High School.
At 1 p.m. firemen put out a blaze in the 48-inch pipe at A Street and Pacific Avenue. Eight hours later police received calls from parents reporting their sons missing.
The boys left home about noon intending to have a wiener roast at the juvenile pond and to explore "as far as we can go" inside the sewer pipe.
Their bodies were found about 11 p.m. sprawled together beneath a manhole cover at Lucus Avenue and Bonneville Street, .8 mile from where they entered the pipe.
The sewer outlet at the south end of Illinois Avenue near the fish pond has no protective covering.
Origin of the fire is unknown. No refuse was found at the site of the blaze, to indicate a purposely set fire, said Irving Kau, assistant public works director, who inspected the scene yesterday.
A pile of burned matches and a cigarette butt were found on the ledge beneath the manhole cover at Illinois Avenue and A Street.
One boy had two books of matches in his pants pocket.
Kau said the one-inch tar lining in the sewer line is flammable. "It melts and burns like gasoline once it gets going," he explained.
There had been no fires reported in the three-year-old pipe until Friday.
Police received no complaints of anyone playing inside the "tube," but a number of youngsters said yesterday it had been a popular test of bravery to see how far they could crawl inside.
The goal was to sign a name farther along in the pipe than the last name recorded.
"Zeller" was chalked inside the first manhole cover.
After hearing about all the kids who've been in there, I thank God more of them didn't die," said Victor Zeller, Frederick's father.
"I hope now the city will put some kind of heavy wire mesh over the opening."
Kau said, "You bet there's going to be a grid put on the end of that pipe - Monday."
Zeller theorized, from the positions in which the bodies were found, that the boys had been standing on one another's shoulders trying to raise the 150-pound manhole cover when they died.
Eldhardt's glasses were on a ledge. His bicycle, found inside the pipe, gave police their first indication the boys were inside.
"I don't know what made them go." Zeller said. "Fred was afraid of the dark."
He carried a six-volt lantern. The others had flashlights.
Haines told Kay Martin, 13, Flamingo Village, he kept food inside the pipe "in case of a riot or bombing."
He and Cheney had been expected at a surprise birthday party in her honor Friday night.
Mrs. Bryce Cheny had been worried her son hadn't come home to change his clothes before the party. She learned the reason from a radio braodcast before anyone else could tell her.
At first firemen believed the blaze was caused by the ignition of oil dripped from a truck, said Fire Chief Lyle Cooney. No investigation was held Friday afternoon.
The manhole cover under which the boys were found was raised during the fire, but because of smoke and darkness they were not seen. It was later assumed they were then already dead.
RELATED STORY - SAME FRONT PAGE OF TRI-CITY HERALD
"I told him not to light any fires in there. I said carbon-monoxide would get him."
The warning was ignored. And 24 hours later four Pasco youths were dead, suffocated by billowing black smoke which turned their two-mile trip under the streets of Pasco into a race for life.
It was a race they lost.
Fourteen-year-old Gary Overholt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Overholt, Flamingo Trailer Court, issued the warning in class at Isaac Stevens Junior High Thursday. He admits that despite his own warning, he might have gone along with the four who died. Except that he found he had to sell circus tickets to raise money for the Tri-City Drum and Bugle corps, in which he plays the French horn.
Just as close an escape was that of 14-year-old Alan Stromseth, son of Mr. and MRs. Alvin Stromseth, also of the Flamingo Trailer Court. He, Gary and one of the dead boys, Fred Zeller, were budies.
Alan had called Fred Friday morning. He wanted him to go fishing. But Fred had other plans. He and some other friends were either going to fly a rocket, or go through the sewer pipes.
At Alan's elbow during the conversation was his mother. There were chores to be done. And he had a 2 p.m. dental appointment to keep. The pipe trip was out.
Alan stayed home. And lived.
Fred and his friends chose the pipe over the rocket. And died.
Perhaps the last of the dead boys' freinds to see them alive was Mark Ray, 14, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ray, 1515 Shoshone St., Pasco. Mark went to a neighbor's Friday about 10:30 a.m. to borrow a brake shoe for his bike.
Fred and his three friends were across the street. Their conversation consisted only of "Hi." But mark said he knew the four were heading for the pipe, for they went there most weekends, he said. They thought it great fun.
It didn't appeal to Mark. He'd never been in the pipe. Neither had Gary. But he'd heard the boys talk about it. How you have to walk stooped over. How sometimes your back aches so much you hurry through the blackness to the next manhole to straighten up.
It was at such a manhole that the four, running away from billowing, black, oily smoke Friday, reached for a pin point of light filtering through a fingersized hole in the heavy manhole cover six feet above their heads.
But they were too late.
The light went out.
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