The 26-year-old plumbing contractor who suffocated Saturday after becoming trapped in a trench in Denver was identified Sunday as Erick Acosta Hernandez, of Aurora.

He was pronounced dead at Denver Health Medical Center, where he was taken after firefighters pulled him from the trench in an alley at 770 Grant St.

Hernandez and other contractors were working on a sewer line when the accident occurred. Hernandez was climbing a ladder when he dropped his shovel. He was in the process of climbing down to retrieve it when the walls of the 12-foot-deep trench collapsed on top of him.