Workers die after being trapped in grain storage tank
TOLEDO — The Andersons officials confirmed two employees died Friday after being trapped inside a grain storage tank at the company’s Toledo facility on Edwin Drive.
Emergency crews were contacted at about 9 a.m. and began rescue operations.
Toledo Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Pvt. Sterling Rahe told reporters at about 11:30 a.m. that one person had died and one remained trapped, and he said the operation was considered a recovery exercise.
The exact circumstances of how the two men became trapped remain unclear.
Private Rahe said the department views these types of calls as a “low-frequency, high-risk” event.
“Every time you take one scoop, or a bucket, five more come in. That’s what we were up against,” Private Rahe said. “We were in there, we built makeshift walls around the individual that we were effecting the rescue on, while simultaneously trying to establish where the other one was at.”
Firefighters rotated crews of about 15 to 20 people as part of their response efforts. The silo was not full, but held an estimated 180,000 bushels of grain at the time of the incident.
“The Andersons is profoundly shaken by this tragedy and the loss of two of our own,” Corey Jorgenson, president of assets and originations for The Andersons Trade Group, said in a statement. “We are working closely with authorities to investigate the incident.”
The company said at this time it will not be providing the names of those who died.
Friday’s incident is not the first time individuals have died in local grain elevator accidents.
In 2006, a man employed at The Andersons grain storage complex in Maumee died in an accident outside one of the storage tanks off Illinois Avenue between Conant and Ford streets. Rodney Dinkens, 38, of Maumee, was one of four people working to remove wheat from a tank when he was suddenly buried.