The shovel used for digging corn was still left at the scene of the accident. The family was overwhelmed with grief.
According to reports (written by reporter Shu Fu Zhang, photos by Jianzhun Li), while wielding a shovel and working hard to dig corn out from the warehouse, suddenly, the wall loosened and collapsed. The corn poured out, instantly burying worker Mr. Peng.
At around 11 a.m. yesterday, when the firefighters and co-workers had dug through the pile of corn, they found that Mr. Peng's head had been hit by the collapsed wall, and he had already stopped breathing.
This incident occurred in a feed processing plant named Xingda Feed located in XinDian Town, Jin'an District, Fuzhou City. According to co-workers, at about 10:40 a.m. yesterday, Mr. Peng and several co-workers were loading corn in the workshop. The corn was piled up in a small warehouse built with cement and bricks, which had a hole at the bottom. Their job was to dig the corn out from this small hole.
"Mr. Peng was standing inside, using a shovel to dig out the corn forcefully," a co-worker said. He suddenly felt the wall loosen, looked up, and saw the wall collapsing, so he shouted loudly and stepped back.
However, Mr. Peng, who was standing deepest inside, didn't have time to escape. The collapsed wall heavily struck him, causing him to fall down immediately. The corn inside the warehouse spilled out due to the collapse of the wall, instantly burying Mr. Peng.
Upon seeing this, several co-workers quickly called more workers to help dig through the pile of corn. "But too much corn had collapsed, and the pile of corn burying Mr. Peng was at least 1.5 meters high," the co-worker said. They were also very panicked and couldn't figure out the exact location where Mr. Peng was buried. Afraid of injuring Mr. Peng, they dared not use tools like shovels or hoes, and could only dig with their hands.
Firefighters soon arrived and joined in the rescue effort. After digging manually for over 20 minutes, they finally reached Mr. Peng, whose head had been hit by a piece of the collapsed wall.
Upon examination, the 120 emergency doctor found that Mr. Peng had no signs of life.
"There are safety hazards in the corn storage warehouse," an unnamed worker from the feed processing plant said. The walls of this small warehouse were newly built not long ago, with just a layer of cement applied on the outside of the bricks. By visual estimation, the warehouse was approximately 50-60 square meters in size, about 3 meters high, and was filled with corn, estimated to be several tons. "I had mentioned before that after piling the corn into the warehouse, it would exert tremendous pressure on the walls. If the walls weren't strong enough, they might collapse," the worker said.
It is understood that Mr. Peng was from Sichuan Province, and was only 42 years old. He wasn't a formal employee of the feed factory but was temporarily hired for the transportation work.
"Today is the Winter Solstice Festival, I originally told him not to go out and work," Mr. Peng's wife cried, saying that at around 7:30 in the morning, Mr. Peng had gone out looking for temporary jobs. He said that he wanted to earn more money before the New Year to see if they could return home for the holidays.
Mr. Peng had been working in Fuzhou for over 10 years and hadn't returned home for the Spring Festival for several years. A few days ago, he had spent all his savings to buy a truck for his son to start a business. Father and son had planned that once the business stabilized, Mr. Peng wouldn't do manual labor anymore. Unfortunately, an accident happened.
Afterwards, a responsible person from the feed factory expressed that they would certainly handle the aftermath properly.