on a similar note, i know of a local building known for decades as a communal artist space, in an old industrial building. Many local bands were formed there. Much art and expression. Building used to be a laundry, and was sitting on top of a big puddle of dry cleaning fluid, absolutely present in the air throughout the building, just below the smell threshold. I always wondered if the two were connected.
Some more information: in brewing, the primary fermentation used to be in huge open vats – imagine huge bathtubs made of stainless steel, at least three metres deep. After each batch, these vats had to be scrubbed. Brewing generates a lot of CO2, so entering the tank to clean it is only done when a candle is first lowered in to ensure that there is enough oxygen and the rooms themselves are well ventilated. (Being a brewer is part science, but mostly just scrubbing and cleaning.)
In this particular case, the brewer did not do this, and soon we noticed he was looking wobbly, so one of the other brewers quickly went down the ladder, and carried the woozy guy up.
Now, unlike carbon monoxide, people will actually expose themselves to high doses of CO2 as a sort of spa. It is still used to treat whooping cough, for example. So yeah, we did play too much with the fermentation gases.
Also, modern systems in large breweries collect the CO2 and filter it, so that it can be used for pressurisation in filling, bottled for taps, and so on.
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To be clear though the OP said his tale took place in Germany but I’m betting they have even more stringent confined space regulations.
What happened to the rescue harness regulations? Also the regulations USED to state no inside vessel rescue is to be attempted without external air. That’s the reason for the 1 in 1 out + rescue harness. To be fair this was over 20 years ago and I’m sure 8 years of W watered it way down
Oh! You’re assuming that people are following procedure. They aren’t, and that’s why they die. Most accidents occur because workers are ignorant of the actual danger present due to lack of training… those that have received the training but have chosen to ignore it are a far smaller but still present group.
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those signs say NEIN to me. 
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