FREAK ACCIDENT

Man Crushed to Death by Thousands of Wheels of Cheese

A firefighter said it took “about 12 hours” to dig him out of the dairy tomb.

A man in Italy was crushed to death by thousands of wheels of cheese, each weighing around 90 pounds, according to local authorities. Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, was checking on ripening wheels of grana padano cheese in a warehouse in the town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo in northern Italy on Sunday when a shelf broke, triggering a massive cascade. Firefighter Antonio Dusi told AFP that rescuers “had to move the cheeses and the shelves by hand,” a task that “took about 12 hours,” before Chiapparini was finally found. Around 25,000 wheels of grana padano—a parmesan-like hard cheese popular in Italian cuisine—were stored in the warehouse on rows of metal shelves, the tallest of which climbed above 33 feet.