Trapped farm worker’s body pulled from grain silo, NC officials say
The body of a farm worker was pulled from a grain silo on a North Carolina farm Monday afternoon, Washington County officials said.
What started as a rescue turned into a recovery as Elith Sosa’s body was removed from a silo at Lake Phelps Grain Inc., WITN reported.
The 50-year-old was an employee of the Creswell farm and got stuck in the grain silo at about 9:30 a.m., according to WRAL. The coastal city is about 150 miles east of Raleigh.
Emergency workers originally believed they were responding to a gas leak but soon began using large vacuums to drain corn from the silo in an attempt to rescue Sosa, per WNCT.
As of 3:45 p.m. officials said they located the man’s body and attempts shifted to recovering Sosa, according to WITN.
“We send our thoughts and prayers to this man’s family at this time,” said Stuart Brooks, the attorney for the farm, WNCT reported.
The deadly incident will be investigated.
This is the second recovery from a grain silo in the Carolinas in less than a week.
On July 25, a man was rescued from a silo on Cactus Family Farms in Orangeburg County after being trapped inside for about eight hours, The State reported.
A week earlier in Ohio, two men died after they became trapped in a grain silo, McClatchy newsgroup reported.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 10:17 PM.
