Safety pros have to be aware of situations in which workers might encounter oxygen-deficient atmospheres. Predicting this hazard might have been more difficult.

Police say a worker died after falling into a pile of leaves and plastic bags at a composting business in Minneapolis.

After he fell into the pile, he apparently suffocated, according to the Star Tribune.

“It was a freak accident,” police spokesman Jesse Garcia said. “It sounds like he was working hard and trying to make a better life. It was pretty sad.”

Police haven’t identified the man. He was only 21-years-old.

Tags: hazard, oxygen-deficient, suffocates