A 38-year-old Guatemalan man, Nicolas Lopez Gomez, tragically died inside an industrial oven in Perryville, Missouri. Reportedly, Gomez had been working at a cereal plant under an alias.
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According to KSDK, citing the Perryville Police Department, the incident occurred at the Gilster Mary Lee Cereal Plant on Thursday, June 26. Perryville police officers responded to the cereal plant located on Old St. Mary’s Road at around 3 p.m.
Reportedly, Gomez succumbed inside an industrial oven after attempts to save his life carried out by first responders failed.
“(Gomez) was in the process of using a power washer on the machine from the outside,” a Perryville spokesperson said. “It is unclear at this time how he ended up inside the machine.”
After the man died, the Perry County Coroner was requested at the scene. Then, the Coroner’s Office and the police department managed to identify the man as Nicolas Lopez Gomez. As a result of an investigation, it was revealed that Gomez, a Guatemalan man, was working under the alias of Edward Avila at the time of his death.
Currently, the incident is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“Our offices will work with them to determine how this occurred,” Coroner Meghan Ellis said in a statement, as per CBS News.
No foul play is suspected by investigators.
Similar Incident
Gomez’s death comes months after a 19-year-old Canadian Walmart employee, Gursimran Kaur, died inside a walk-in bakery oven. The incident occurred at a Halifax Walmart located on Mumford Road on October 19, 2024.
A GoFundMe reported that Kaur’s mother began searching for her daughter at the store after she went missing for about an hour. One of the 19-year-old’s colleagues, then, noticed a “leakage” coming from the oven.
A family spokesperson revealed that, in a horrifying moment, Kaur’s mother was the one who opened the oven to. She discovered her daughter’s charred remains inside.
Canadian authorities later determined, on November 18, that there was no foul play involved in her death.
The GoFundMe managed to raise close more than 194K Canadian dollars to help support the Kaur family.
“Your kindness and generosity have been a source of strength for the family as they navigate through this tragedy,” the Maritime Sikh Society Executive, the fundraiser’s organizer, said in an update.