Salinas, Calif.-Rescuers from a nearby fire station said an unidentified employee at Associated Tagline Ag Services here was lucky to escape uninjured Feb. 20 after being trapped up to his chest in granular fertilizer in a 25-foot hopper. No one at the farm input location would talk about the incident or identify the person involved. But Ron Stefani, division chief with the North County Fire District of Monterey County described the situation as a 20-foot pile of urea that caved-in on the victim. “He was lucky the rest of it didn’t come down on him,” reported Stefani whose crew worked cautiously to lower a rope harness from above and even notified the railroad to keep trains from coming by and shaking things up “Any movement by us or any other vibration could have caused more fertilizer to fall at least 25 feet on to the victim who was pinned in what appeared to be a chute used for loading trucks,” he told Green Markets. Associated Manager Alberto Ortiz said the worker “was back to work that afternoon.” Stefani said it was reported that the man whom he could identify only as a 61-year-old Hispanic was in the hopper to get a shovel lodged at the bottom of the chute and was joined by another employee who assisted with the rescue. “The shovel was never retrieved to our knowledge,” he added.
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