The Owner of the Grana Padano Factory Died Buried in Thousands of Cheeses, It Took 11 Hours to Evacuate His Body

Illustration of the Grana Padano cheese storage area. (Wikimedia Commons/Wikirog)

JAKARTA - An Italian cheese maker died on Sunday, after being crushed by thousands of Grana Padano cheese in the curing room of his factory in Bergamo, northern Italy.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, entered the curing room to inspect an automated robot used to clean cheese during the aging process at his company's warehouse, according to Carabinieri Bergamo, reported by CNN, August 9.

At the time of his death, there were about 10 floor-to-ceiling shelf corridors with about 1,600 cheeses per corridor.

It is not clear how the pile of cheese started to fall, but officials described it as a "domino effect" that led to the cheesemaker's death.

Carabinieri officials, along with the fire department and two ambulance services and other local authorities said they were called to the scene at around 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.

It took more than 11 hours to find Chiapparini's body under a pile of cheese.

He was identified by his family, who live and work at the cheese factory, said a spokesman for the Carabinieri.

The plan, Giacomo Chiapparini's funeral will be held on Thursday.

The Chiapparini factory was founded in the late 1970s and produces around 15,000 Grana Padano cheese wheels annually, using milk from cows raised at the factory, according to the company's website. This cheese is aged between 12 and 70 months.

Reporting from various sources, Grana Padano is a hard textured cheese from pasteurized cow's milk typical of Italy.