I'd say very good topic. Quite a few years ago we arrived at our hauled boat, DIY yard, to find several emergency vehicles. Turned out a man had died in a sail locker. No one had noticed until the odor became very noxious.

In my own case, I always have my wife standing by in the cockpit whenever I have to do maintenance in our port sail locker, usually engine transmission stuff, since I very often get wedged in and am unable to get out by myself. Like wise when I'm diving on the prop.