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3 Keys road workers dead after collapsing underground

Posted at 2:42 PM, Jan 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-16 14:42:18-05

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) - Officials say it's not clear what killed three men working underground on a road project in the Florida Keys.

According to Monroe County spokeswoman Cammy Clark, one of the men working for the county's contractor went down a drainage manhole Monday morning to investigate why a newly paved Key Largo road was settling nearby.

Clark says the worker got trapped, and then three other workers, a firefighter and two sheriff's deputies tried to help him.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin says three of the workers and the firefighter "collapsed for unknown reasons."

Herrin says two workers were pronounced dead after being pulled from the hole. She says the third worker "has still not been recovered and is presumed dead."

The firefighter and deputies were hospitalized. Five nearby homes were evacuated.

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