News

Wine workers die after Rioja vat incident

05 October 2023 By James Evison

Two workers have died at a winery after being exposed to toxic fumes from a vat of Rioja at the Crespo Zabala winery in Spain.

The winery, which is located in the Basque country in northern Spain occurred on Sunday with two men in their 60s, Gerardo Jubera and Felix Crespo, dying in the incident.

According to reports, Jubera died after slipping into the vat after checking on the fermentation process at the wine maker’s warehouse.

Crespo then attempted to assist his colleague and tried to pull him out, but both of them were then overcome by toxic fumes. An additional 31-year-old man, who was also affected by the fumes, was taken to a nearby hospital.

Local health and safety investigators have now taken the case and are looking into the deaths.

Speaking about the incident, the mayor of the town, Itziar de Alava Martinez de Icaya said: “It’s something we would all do to save a family member.”

It comes only two weeks after a similar incident where a Treviso winemaker died after attempting to save a colleague who had fainted in a wine vat.

A man in his forties died after trying to save a colleague who had passed out from carbon dioxide fumes during maintenance work in a processing tank. The tank had been emptied of wine for bottling, but fumes from the fermentation process remained, impacting the health of the two men, neither of whom were wearing breathing equipment or safety harnesses, according to the fire brigade.

The news also follows a river of more than 2 million litres of red wine flowing through a Portuguese town after its tanks gave way.

In addition, an Italian man was crushed to death by thousands of wheels of cheese that fell on him at a warehouse in Lombardy, Italy, after a shelf broke.

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