"This past December, approximately 13 firefighter crews arrived at a Las Vegas tunnel dug by Boring Company, Elon Musk's $5.6 billion underground transportation startup. After two hours practicing the rescue of a 200-pound mannequin dummy, two of the firefighters ended up in the hospital with chemical burns from the "muck" liquid that pools in the base of the tunnels-a mixture of chemicals, groundwater, and earth."
"Nevada's workplace safety regulator launched an investigation and issued three "willful" citations against Boring Co.-the most aggressive violations the state OSHA can levy. That's when Steve Davis, the president of Boring, who was just wrapping up a stint helping Musk run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), picked up the phone. He called Chris Reilly, a former Tesla leader who in 2024 had joined Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo's office."
"State regulators maintain that the outreach from the Governor's Office led Nevada OSHA to go back and review the citations and determine they were invalid and should never have been issued in the first place. "We decided that the best course of action was to withdraw the citation pending further review," one of the regulators in the meeting told Fortune."
In December, about 13 firefighter crews conducted a rescue drill in a Las Vegas tunnel dug by the Boring Company. Two firefighters were hospitalized with chemical burns from a pooling "muck" mixture of chemicals, groundwater, and earth. Nevada's workplace safety regulator opened an investigation and issued three "willful" citations against the company. Boring president Steve Davis contacted Chris Reilly, and within 24 hours senior Nevada officials met with company executives and the citations were rescinded. State regulators said outreach from the Governor's Office prompted a review that found the citations invalid. An investigation concluded the rescinds were highly unusual and contrary to procedure.
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