When first responders looked into a Cargill malt silo where three workers were reported to be trapped last August, they could only see two workers at first.
They peered down through a 2-by-1-foot opening in the side of the silo to see the workers below them on a slope of grain. The grain was piled up against the wall, not far below the opening, and sloped down to the bottom from there.
The workers had become trapped as they were emptying the silo, which is about 60 to 70 feet tall. Toward the bottom of the silo, there's a roughly 45-degree slope the grain runs down to go through a chute that empties onto a conveyor belt.
They'd been on that slope when the worker nearest to the bottom got stuck and couldn't free himself from the grain.