Pooi Pauu, and immigrant from Tonga, was standing near the cesspool’s cap when the ground he was on collapsed. The cement cap fell in after Pauu. He fell about 30 feet into more than 10 feet of sludge, rocks and rubble.

Pauu was working as a subcontractor at a house on in a neighborhood that has been connected to cesspools for several decades and which is undergoing a switch to connect to the sewer system.

“He just threw his arms in the air, looked surprised and fell,” said Cathleen Dagher, the consulting archaeologist for the project.

Although the pit was already decommissioned, Dagher said there was about 10 feet of sludge remaining.

When Pauu’s friend and co-worker Neil Haunga yelled down the hole, he received no response.

“There was no movement, no nothing,” Haunga said.

Rescuers arrived and first drained the hole, which is about 12 feet wide.

“There was no sign of life when we got here,” said fire spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig. A crane was brought in to excavate the rocks so rescuers could enter the hole, he said.

The neighborhood has been hooked up to cesspools for decades, said Bird, 81, Laie Point Community Association president.

“We’ve never had a problem with the cesspools before,” she said. “Many people here actually preferred not to go with the sewer system.”

For two months, Pooi had been working as a subcontractor. But that was only a side job for Pooi, known by Laie contractors for his landscaping company. His company employed about four people, friends said.

Pooi came to Hawaii from Kolomotua Nukualofa, Tonga, about 1996. He worked about six years as a landscaper in Honolulu before working for his father-in-law’s landscaping business and later opening his own.

Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin