An Italian man died this Sunday after being crushed by thousands of wheels of cheese at his factory in Bergamo, northern Italy. CNN International.
Giacomo Chiapparini, a 74-year-old cheese maker, entered the factory’s curing room to test the mechanism used to clean the cheese wheels, according to the Carabinieri (a division of the Italian military) in Bergamo.
There were about ten corridors at the crash site, each with about 1,600 wheels of cheese. Authorities also said it was unclear how the initial collapse occurred, which led to what they call a “domino effect” that culminated in the man’s death.
Carabinieri and firefighters arrived on the scene, supported by two ambulances and other local authorities, who were called around 21:00 local time (20:00 in Lisbon) on Sunday.
It took the authorities more than 11 hours to find and remove the body of the manufacturer from under the wheels of cheese. According to a spokesman for the Carabinieri, Giacomo Chiapparini was identified by a family who works at a cheese factory.
Chiapparini founded in the late 70s a factory that annually produces about 15 thousand pieces of Grana Padano cheese from the milk of cows raised in the factory. Before selling, the cheese is aged from 12 to 70 months.