An elderly man died on Sunday in the small town of Romano di Lombardia near Bergamo in Italy after thousands of 40 kg cheese wheels fell on him.
Antonio Dusi, a firefighter from Bergamo, says Giacomo Chiapparini (74) was buried under the giant cheeses when a shelf in his warehouse gave way and caused the thousands of kilograms of cheese to fall.
The giant cheese wheels are stored on metal racks, the tallest of which stood at 10 meters. Chiapparini was apparently inspecting the ripening wheels of cheese when one of the racks gave way.
“Rescue workers had to move the cheeses and the shelves by hand; it took about 12 hours to finally find Chiapparini,” says Dusi.
The warehouse housed a total of 25,000 wheels of grana padano, a very popular cheese in Italy. It is a hard cheese that looks like parmesan.
