Roberto Y. Longoria

Roberto Y. Longoria died attempting to save Jose Perez from suffocation, Avondale, Arizona, August 29, 2021. Inside a truck-wash garage, Perez, 32, entered a chemical tanker trailer that he had been cleaning of its load of a corrosive solution after determining the residual liquid contents inside were draining slowly from a vent. Perez became unresponsive, alarming his co-worker on the ground, Longoria, 42, tanker technician. Longoria went to the top of the trailer and started to enter through the narrow hatch but stopped and asked a truck driver if he would help him. Longoria called 911 to report that Perez was passed out and retrieved a respirator mask from a nearby shelf on the ground as the driver, who took over the 911 call, left the area to find help. Longoria returned to the top of the trailer and, outside the view of a surveillance camera, entered. Soon, he, too, was unconscious. Firefighters removed Longoria and Perez later that day. Both were pronounced dead at the scene from their exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, which authorities later determined was present in the trailer even after the interior had been cleaned. The toxic gas level found in Longoria’s blood was higher than in Perez’s.