Just on our local news, a man died in a grain bin. I suppose the corn. or beans gave way, and took him under. A bad deal to say the least.

Happens out this way with rice too. Gotta be a terrible way to go.

Remember those bad grain bin explosions before they started ventilating them better?

I read many years ago that they used brass wrenches working in grain elevators. ?

We had aluminum crescent wrenches. I thought it was because they were lighter and easier to use at the time.

Same with oil refineries...but over the years they learned through multiple testing through advanced technologies that a tool spark is too cold to cause a flash....always kinda made me uneasy....but that's the claim...
Grain elivaters are handled much differentlynow, they are blown down with compressed air to eliminate the dust...but I fear that could create a bigger problem...moving air creates static electricity...I have witnessed several refineries fires caused by a poorly grounded vac truck...

Worked for the largest grain company in the world, for 28 years. Grain bin suffocation is 100% preventable, but it still happens, more so in farm bins. If you enter a grain bin above the floor level while grain is being drawn out, or if you enter a bin where there “may be” a hollowed out cavity in the grain below you, you have a pretty good risk of being killed by suffocation.
On the explosion issue in grain handling facilities, there have been huge innovations and design changes over the past 35 or so years that have greatly reduced the number of and severity of explosions.

Our local grain elevator had an explosion in the main leg last week...my nephew worked there and left for another job about a month ago...he said he was the only one who would blow it down for dust...everyone was just too lazy....hum...I took out the explosion panels and landed in a field about 100 yds away...they were down for a week...had to run corn an extra 50 miles for only 9 cents more...
No one was hurt tho...

One local farm found a dead guy in a bin full of corn when they started smelling something bad.

Until then they just thought he hadn't shown up for work.

You never hear of explosions around here but there have been the occasional death due to getting in the bin. And an occasional injury due to getting into an auger. Every now and then you will have a fall injury. I've worked around a lot of bins, mostly electrical repairs and I've wired a few new sets. Some of those guys scare me, getting down in the pit when the auger is running.

And there you have it.

I had a distant relative die in what was described to me as a similar even to the above, but it wasn't grain - it was salt. Apparently his absence wasn't noticed for a bit and a few days in the salt did some wicked things to his appearance when they found him.

When I had farm land in Colorado a grain elevator "blew" up when a spark set off the dust. I wasn't there but saw the aftermath. No one was killed but a couple of people standing outside were injured. I never heard what they thought set it off.

I heard of one suffocation in a wheat bin in the area. Seems to happen more often than we think.