Methane Kills Five In Virginia

Model of Methane Gas molecule:






Bridgewater, Virginia:

Five people where killed on a dairy farm in this rural area of Virginia by inhaling methane gas from a manure pit , including four members of a Mennonite family.

The story of how it happened runs something like this ... A worker on the farm was transferring manure form one pit to another when there evidently was a blockage in the pipe at which point the worker crawled down into the pipe and passed out from the odorless fumes.
Whereupon the Mennonite farmer went down the pipe to recuse the worker and fell to the gas in suit, followed by his wife and their two children ... daughters aged 11 and 9.

When rescue workers arrived it was not a rescue but a recovery mission after they had cleared the pipe of methane and the blockage. Family and friends arrived to milk the cows and finish transferring the manure and cleaning up.

CH4 (methane gas) is formed by the liquid manure in the pits (and by other biological elements breaking down, i.e., garbage, lawn trimmings, etc.) and can be very dangerous in an enclosed space... so watch out around that mulch pile in your own backyard if it is under any type of roof to hold the gas close to the ground.