Man dies after getting stuck in cereal plant oven

A factory worker got stuck in an industrial oven at a cereal plant and was found dead.

Nicolas Lopez Gomez, 38, was discovered in the oven at a Gilster-Mary Lee Corporation cereal plant in Perryville, Missouri, on Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters tried to help but were not able to get to him before he succumbed to his injuries, said the Perryville Police Department.

The Perry County Coronor was called to the scene less than 20 minutes after officers arrived around 3pm.

There was ‘a concerted effort between the police department and the coroner’s office’ to save him, according to the police department.

Police identified him as an immigrant from Guatemala who was working under the name Edward Avila.

Gomez ‘was in the process of using a power washer on the machine from the outside,’ a police spokesperson told KSDK.

Investigators were not able to immediately figure out how Gomez got inside the machine, but no foul play is suspected.

‘Our offices will work with them to determine how this occurred,’ stated Perry County Coroner Meghan Ellis.

A federal agency enforcing workplace standards and conditions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is investigating the incident that happened on the 600 block of Old St Mary’s Road.

Gilster-Mary Lee has been in business for 125 years and has  11 manufacturing facilities across Missouri and Illinois.

‘The story of Gilster-Mary Lee is the story of its employees,’ states its website.

‘Gilster-Mary Lee employees brought the company through the challenging years of its startup, the great Mississippi River flood of 1993, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

‘They have consistently made peoples’ lives better by providing them high quality, high value food products that they enjoy!’

Gomez died more than a year after a Georgia woman working at a golf cart plant was pulled into a conveyer belt while trying to pick up an AirPod and got crushed to death.

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