No Way Out Vol. XII

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

This episode of the MrBallen Podcast presents three harrowing accounts of individuals trapped in inescapable situations. The stories range f

Key takeaways

• A DIY repair attempt at Fresha Bakery resulted in the deaths of Ian Erickson and David Mays due to extreme residual heat.
• Carl O'Keefe suffered fatal crush injuries after becoming wedged in a U-shape within a child's play cave system.

Main topics

• Industrial accidents
• Cave exploration fatalities

Notable quotes

Ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began.

Conclusion

A sobering look at how unexpected circumstances can turn ordinary mome

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Today's podcast will feature three stories that involve people who were trapped with no way out. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Bread, and it's about a DIY repair at a factory that quickly turns into a disaster. The second story you'll hear is called Dead End. And it's about a man who explores this cave that seems like it's sort of an unassuming place, but it quickly turns into a death trap. And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Cage. It's about urban explorers who discover a horrifying scene during one of their explorations. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload four times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Button's house and flip all of their wall-mounted TVs upside down. Okay, let's get into our first story, called Bread. Speaker 2 (1:23) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore. Because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Turning dreams into direction. Speaker 2 (1:40) Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 1 (1:57) In 1998, Fresha Bakery, which was a bread company in Leicester, England, was all about profits. And their employees knew this, because all the time, corners were being cut for the sake of money, even if it was totally dangerous. In May of that year, one of the company's industrial ovens needed a minor repair. One of the cogs inside the oven had come loose and fallen off, and someone just needed to pick it up and put it back on. To picture this oven in your head, think of the scanner you put your luggage through at the airport, the x-ray machine. It's kind of like that. It was this 80-foot long metal tunnel where there was a conveyor belt that ran through it, and you would put dough on one side, and it would run through with the conveyor belt through this oven, and then on the other side, it would be fully cooked. Whenever repairs were needed inside one of these ovens, the procedure was to completely turn off the oven. So not just the heat, but the whole operation needed to be completely shut down, and then the oven would sit for almost a full 24 hours before a mechanic would go in and make the repair. But the mechanic cost money, and every hour that this bread machine was not operational, the company would lose $1,500. And so the managers of this company thought, you know what, that's too much money to be giving up. If we do the repairs ourselves, that saves us on the cost of the mechanic. And if we can find a way to make the repairs while leaving the oven partially running, that will save us a whole bunch of money too. Someone pointed out that it was possible to turn the heat all the way down in the oven, but allow the conveyor belt to keep rotating through. They just needed to find a way to get in with this conveyor belt moving around them. And so they came up with a plan. Even though the oven sat flush to the ground, there was a side panel that could open up and you could crawl underneath the oven and right above you would be the conveyor belt. And so they thought, well, hey, if we just remove a couple of sections of the conveyor belt, when that gap in the belt cycles around and is right over someone who is standing underneath it, they can stand up into that gap and kind of be hunched over and walk along inside of the oven, staying in that gap until they come across the cog that's going to be right on the ground. They can pick it up, put it right back on and keep walking on, staying in the gap until they reach the other side, at which point they could crawl out the exit. And so they began walking around the factory asking for volunteers and they were offering extra pay. Two men, 44-year-old Ian Erickson and 47-year-old David Mays, volunteered for the job. And their managers told them they would do it the next day because they needed time to turn the heat off on the oven and let it cool down first. That night, David was out with his friends and he was talking about how he was kind of nervous about getting inside of a semi-operational industrial oven, but he told them the money was good. The following day at 9 a.m., the oven's heat was turned all the way down, and the plan was it would sit like that all day and cool off all day, and then in the evening, Ian and David would get inside and do the job. But Ian and David had a really important soccer game they wanted to watch that night, and so they asked their manager, would it be possible to go in a little bit earlier? And so the manager walked down to the oven and put his hand inside one of the entrances, and there were fans blowing into it, and it had been off for a couple of hours, and he thought, you know what, this is probably fine, you guys can go now. A few sections of the conveyor belt were removed, Ian was given a radio, and the two men opened the side to the oven, and they crawled in on the far left side of the oven, and they waited for the gap to come around. When it did, they popped up, and they began their journey into the center of the oven. About five minutes later, Ian came over the radio and said, hey, it's really hot in here. And the manager came back and said, don't worry, it's supposed to be a little warm in there, but it's nothing that can hurt you. And then a couple of seconds later, Ian comes back over the radio and says, no, it's really hot in here. It is unbearably hot in here. And so one of the managers ran over and checked the temperature gauge, which unbelievably no one had done to that point. And the temperature at the center of the oven was reading over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. It was hot enough to boil water in the center of this oven. And unfortunately, there was nowhere for Ian or David to go. The belt could not go in reverse and the fastest it could move is 17 minutes start to finish, so agonizingly slow. And they could not crawl up or below the conveyor belt in either direction. There wasn't enough clearance and they'd get sucked up into the machinery. So they literally had to stay in the gap and slowly walk towards the hottest section of the oven. And so for 10 minutes, Ian and David slowly made their way across this oven, screaming out in pain, yelling for help from anyone, someone, but no one could do anything. And even if they hit the emergency stop button on the oven, it wouldn't help them because the heat inside of the oven is not because it's on, it was residual heat. And by turning off the oven, that would just stop the conveyor belt, trapping Ian and David in the hottest part of the oven. Workers ran and got their tools