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Three people are dead and one remains unconscious after a family of four fell into a silo used for storage of livestock feed in the town of Gokase, Miyazaki Prefecture, on Tuesday, police said Wednesday. The family had fallen on top of each other and police believe they suffocated in the silo, which was 1.2 meters in diameter and about 4 meters tall.
Police identified the dead as local farmer Kazuo Miyazaki, 60, his wife Shizue, 59, and his mother Tomiko, 79. Miyazaki's grandson Riku, 7, remains unconscious. Police suspect the three adults fell into the silo while trying to rescue Riku, who had already fallen in.
© News reports
22 Comments
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mansen
this is such a sad story.....
DarkKnightNine
How do four adults suffocate inside of something that is just 4m tall? I'm assuming of course that if they fell in there must have been an opening at the top of the thing so air could get in and that the adults in question are at least 4m tall or taller. Couldn't they have just stood up? Excuse me if this is an ignorant question. Not exactly sure what a feed silo looks like. Are there blades or something dangerous on the bottom that would have prevented them from standing up?
cleo
Do you live in Giantland?
dbung10
Tragic story
noirgaijin
DarkKnightnine, 4 meters is just over 13 ft. I assume these folks were in the 5ft 5in range give an inch or two.
DarkKnghtZ
And assuming it was actually full of feed, they would be breathing air for about 3 seconds, the rest would be breathing feed. Terrible story to hear about. I hope the Kid pulls through.
USNinJapan2
DarkKnightNine
Don't know what kind of feed this silo contained so I'm just guessing, but the feed could have been a type that 'off-gasses' and is toxic in high concentrations. If this was the case there wouldn't have been much breathable air inside the confined space for anyone who entered without appropriate breathing apparatus.
Elbuda Mexicano
RIP old folk from Miyazaki. What a horrible way to go!
Disillusioned
Grain silos are known killers, so the question remains, how did the kid fall in?
nihonjinsurfer
USNinJapan2, I think you're right. I used to work in these things. If it was only 4 meters, there was already hay in the silo. These things usually go pretty far down into the ground. Can't imagine how bad it'd be to work in them, that far down south.
KallyPygous
The kid fell in because he's a kid. They were probably soon unconscious because they would have been squeezed very hard.
smithinjapan
Very sad.
spudman
in a grain silo it's like quicksand. You move you sink into a sea of wheat or maize. Best thing to do is not struggle. Near impossible to do. A rope and wide plywood sheets would have helped but WTF why would three adults be needed? Wow the great grand mother was a young mother in her day.
nath
People are not 4 meters tall. Second, it is the grain dust that can kill you. It is also highly explosive.
Gombei424Canada
RIP,people.
Disillusioned
Let me rephrase the question for the single dimension thinkers:
It is common knowledge that grain silos are killers. Why did a four year old kid have easy access to it?
spudman
he was 7. they go anywhere they like at that age!
truthliberates
Very sad story. I pray the child recovers without any serious lasting health problems.
nath
Im not satisfied with the explanation.
Shaolin7
This is a very tragic incident, especially so considering it was an attempted rescue of their grandson. I hope he makes it out okay.
ablestmage
Could have easily been a murder-suicide planned to look like an accident.
DarkKnightNine
Wow! Don't know what I was thinking. For some reason I always think 1 meter is equivalent or about the same size as one foot. Being American, I always forget the metric system of measurement. In this case, I was imagining something that was only 4ft. tall. Thank you to all the readers who very nicely explained my judgement error.