Brothers drown in a Rioja vat: a 61-year-old Spanish wine worker dies trying to save a sixty-year-old who fell in after being overwhelmed by the fumes
- Two wine workers have died at a family vineyard in Lanciego, northern Spain.
- Another man hospitalized after inhaling toxic fumes
- The men have been named locally as Gerardo Jubera and Felix Crespo, aged 60 and 61.
Two wine workers died after one fell into a fermentation tank in Spain and his brother-in-law also fell while trying to save him.
The men were identified by local media as Gerardo Jubera and Felix Crespo, 60 and 61, from the family winery Crespo Zabala, in Lanciego, northern Spain.
Mr Jubera slipped and fell into the vat while checking the wine fermentation process in a warehouse on Sunday.
Mr Crespo then rushed to help, but both men died after apparently being overcome by toxic carbon dioxide fumes.
A 31-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, was also affected by the toxic fumes and flown to a nearby hospital.
The local mayor, Itziar de Alava Martinez de Icaya, said: “This is something we would all do to save a member of our family. »
Both men died after Mr Jubera fell into a fermentation vat in northern Spain.
Another man was flown to hospital after inhaling toxic fumes.
The men worked at the Crespo Zabala family winery, in Lanciego, northern Spain.
She added that both men were well known in the town and their deaths had left residents “deeply shocked”.
The region is famous for its production of dark red, full-bodied Rioja wine.
The Basque Institute for Safety at Work is investigating these deaths.
This tragedy comes just weeks after another wine-related incident in Western Europe.
Winemakers have painted the small Portuguese town of São Lourenco do Bairro red after two of its reservoirs accidentally spilled 2.2 million liters of red wine onto a quiet street.
A fast-moving river of red wine rushed down a steep hillside in the small town, near the coast of Portugal, after two tanks belonging to the Levira distillery suddenly gave way.
Baffled locals watched as the wine, almost enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool, swept through the city streets.
The spill was so massive that local authorities issued an environmental alert and were forced to divert the wine to prevent it from contaminating the nearby Certima River.
