Rescue Workers Suspend Search for 4 Trapped in Grain Elevator Blast
Rescue workers suspended a search Tuesday evening for four people believed to have been trapped in the wreckage of a giant grain elevator that exploded more than 24 hours earlier.
Officials identified two men killed in the explosion Monday as Jose Ortiz, 24, and Jose Duarte, 41. Both were employees of Debruce Grain’s Wichita elevator, which witnesses said produced a huge ball of fire when it blew up.
The blast shook homes as far as 10 miles away.
About 90 rescue workers from Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, digging with shovels and bulldozers, worked through tons of rubble and grain. The effort was hampered by grain pouring from the demolished silos into a tunnel underneath where the four were believed to be trapped, Sedgwick County Fire Department Capt. Buddy Pressnel said.
Three injured workers were released from a hospital Tuesday, and three more remained in critical condition with burns suffered in the blast, which investigators suspect was caused by highly flammable grain dust.
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