STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- An electrician from Aurora died overnight when he got stuck in a vent at a Steamboat Springs restaurant and apparently was asphyxiated, authorities said.

Micheal Goodspeed, 49, was trying to enter the restaurant feet-first through the ventilation system when he became wedged in a section that tapered.

Routt County Coroner Rob Ryg told the Steamboat Pilot and Today that it appears Goodspeed died of "positional asphyxiation" because of the narrow opening.

"He was really in an awkward position ... one arm up and one down," Ryg told the paper. "He couldn't get any traction."

An autopsy is planned Friday.

Steamboat Springs police said Goodspeed and two other men were hired to work on the new Indian restaurant, located in the Wildhorse Marketplace in Steamboat Springs. The three men were spending the night there while they worked on getting the Bombay Grill restaurant ready for an opening party on Friday.

The men went out Wednesday night but became separated, police said. Goodspeed apparently got locked out at about midnight and tried to enter through a ventilation shaft from the roof in the kitchen, Steamboat Springs police Capt. Bob DelValle said.

The other workers saw his feet and legs dangling from the kitchen vent when they woke up Thursday morning.

Firefighters were called at about 8:15 a.m. to extricate the man. It took firefighters and officers about 30 minutes to pull Goodspeed's body out of the shaft, said Travis Wilkinson with the Steamboat Springs Fire Department. Firefighters used a rope and pulley system held by a fire truck ladder to lift the man out, Wilkinson said.

On Monday morning, a suspected burglar was found stuck in an air vent above an Aurora, Colo., pizza restaurant.