Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is pausing citywide trash and recycling collection tomorrow after a sanitation worker died on the job of heat related illness.

In response to the tragedy on Friday, the Department of Public Works (DPW) “will conduct a mandatory heat safety training session on Tuesday, August 6,” the agency said in a press release and text alert today.

The worker’s death came on the heels of multiple scathing reports by Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming about chronic hazardous working conditions for trash truck crews laboring in high heat without air conditioning, ice and cold water.

“The training session will focus on the Occupational Safety Health Administration’s guidelines for recognizing the signs and symptoms of heat stroke and related illnesses and ensure employees recognize heat stress hazards and act appropriately to address those hazards,” the DPW release said.

The gesture comes too late for Ronald Silver II, 36, who died Friday while performing his duties in the Barclay neighborhood in North Baltimore.

Silver’s death was described in clinical terms today by state officials who conducted an autopsy and provided their findings to the media.

“The manner is accident and the cause is hyperthermia,” Stephanie Moore, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, told The Brew in an email.

(Hyperthermia is an abnormally high body temperature – in other words, overheating. It occurs when your body absorbs or generates more heat than it can release.)

Meanwhile, the woman who answered the door to the fast-fading sanitation worker Friday afternoon described what happened in heartbreaking detail.

Gabrielle Avendano told WYPR’s Emily Hofstaedter that Silver was in severe distress when he knocked on her door, begging for water to drink and then asking her to pour it on his head.

“I’m shocked and so sad that he died. It could have been prevented if they had just called 911 sooner in the day”  – Gabrielle Avendano.

City officials had issued a Code Red heat advisory as the heat index reading climbed to 105°F.

Avendano said she called 911 and began chest compressions when Silver stopped breathing. He was taken Union Memorial Hospital where he died, WYPR reported.

Avendano was upset to learn from co-workers that Silver had been complaining of pain in his chest and leg all day.

“I’m shocked and so sad that he died because I think that it could have been prevented if they had just called 911 sooner in the day,” she said.

“Nobody called for help except for me.”

IG: Hazardous Conditions

While tomorrow’s heat training will be offered to all DPW employees, it is only mandatory for employees at the two locations where Solid Waste crews are based:

The Cherry Hill Sanitation Yard at 701 Reedbird Avenue, where Silver’s crew was based, and the Eastern Sanitation Yard at 6101 Bowley’s Lane.

The same two locations were singled out in Cumming’s recent report as having the most egregious problems.

• Many city workers endure inhumane conditions similar to those uncovered by OIG, union leader says (7/25/24)

In an emergency visit to Cherry Hill on July 10 during a period of triple-digit temperatures in Baltimore, her office found no functioning air conditioning, broken thermostats, inoperable water fountains and no ice.

According to Cumming, conditions were worse than on a previous inspection in June.

On the return visit, she found that crews had come and gone out on their rounds after finding only water bottles floating in melted icewater in a plastic trash bucket.

The thermostat in a makeshift “cooling” trailer read 83°F and then 85°F during the IG’s hour-long inspection that ended at 7 a.m.

Employees told her some co-workers had passed out.

• In surprise visit, Baltimore inspector general finds sanitation workers exposed to extreme heat, no A/C (7/10/24)

She returned to the Cherry Hill location yet again six days later and found that problems still persisted.

Once again, there was smothering heat inside the building, with an indoor temperature reading of 83° before 7 a.m. The cold water faucets in the men’s bathroom that had only run hot on her last visit were still running hot.

She visited other DPW facilities as well, finding particularly hazardous and demeaning conditions at the Bowley’s Lane solid waste yard.

• DPW knew about poor working conditions at solid waste facility for months, IG says (7/23/24)

Topping the list were conditions in the men’s locker room, where toilet paper dispensers were found empty, and male employees were required to ask for toilet paper before using the bathroom.

“A medical situation”

Mayor Brandon Scott dismissed the IG’s criticism over working conditions, pointing to “decades of disinvestment” that he said his administration was addressing with a three-year plan for building upgrades.

In a statement over the weekend, DPW called Silver a “dedicated crew member.”

“Our hearts are first and foremost with him, his family and loved ones, and his DPW colleagues as we grapple with this loss.”

He “experienced a medical situation that required immediate assistance while he and his fellow crew members were riding in their truck,” the statement said, adding:

“We are still working with the crew and medical professionals who tended to Mr. Silver to understand the details of what occurred.”

Silver was hired last October 29 at an annual salary of $40,669. He had earned slightly under $30,000 during the nine months he worked for the city.

DPW said today that employees will resume normal duties on Wednesday, and that Saturday will serve as a makeup day for trash collection.