State police in New Castle said an 85-year-old Slippery Rock Township man died accidentally Friday, Dec. 13, after he was using a gasoline-operated wood splitter in his closed garage.

Donald Robinson was using the splitter with the doors closed in the garage of his home on Shaffer Road in the afternoon. His 84-year-old wife went to check on him and found him unconscious at 12:45 p.m., police said.

She called her 60-year-old son, who immediately left his home and called 911. The township fire department responded and found Robinson deceased and his wife and son unresponsive in the garage, police said.

“I was on scene within several minutes of getting the call,” said township fire Chief Charles Peak. “I came into the garage and found three unresponsive individuals. We started CPR on all three of them, but one of them remained a fatality.”

Peak added that the fatality and injuries were most likely the result of carbon-monoxide poisoning.

“(He was working with) an internal combustion engine in a closed atmosphere,” Peak said.

The wife and son were taken to Jameson Hospital and were in stable condition Friday, police said. According to the police report, both Noga and McGonigal Ambulance services responded to the scene.