Six dead bodies have been recovered from a confined space at a dairy in northern Colorado.
Rescue crews found the victims at Prospect Valley Dairy off a rural road east of Keenesburg on Wednesday, according to the Southeast Weld Fire Protection District.
‘Crews responded and took appropriate precautions to enter the confined space to perform rescue operations,’ stated the fire department.
‘Unfortunately, District personnel recovered six deceased individuals from the space. The District extends its sincere condolences to the families of the victims.’
The victims have been identified and are men, and all of them are adults except for one who may have been 17 years old, said the Weld County Coroner’s Office on Thursday.
Further details and the cause of their deaths were not immediately known.
But the Weld County coroner told CBS News Colorado that there appeared to be some exposure to gas at the dairy that day.
Autopsies will be conducted over the next few days.
The Weld County Sheriff’s Office said they have not found any evidence of criminal activity in the incident.
It is under investigation by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which ensures safe conditions for workers.
The dairy on the 32000 block of Weld County Road 18 is about 40 miles northeast of Denver.
It happened more than two years after an explosion at South Fork Dairy farm close to Dimmitt, Texas, killed 18,000 cows in the worst known cattle death incident in the country’s history. The blast was caused by a manure vacuum truck engine fire and was ruled as an accident by state investigators.
And nearly three years ago, a North Dakota farm owner and three of his workers were discovered dead in a wheat field. They all had gunshot wounds and it was determined to be a murder-suicide.
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.