Three men die in low-oxygen pit at Navarre farm

Three men died on Wednesday after they became trapped in a slurry pit at a farm near Pitillas, Navarre. The pit, in the El Salobrar area, held livestock waste and had very little oxygen, reports said. The accident happened at about 12:15. The Policía Foral is looking into how it happened.

Large rescue team sent to farm

The men died at the scene, and the rescue teams could not save them. The facts released so far do not give a confirmed cause of death. Officials have also not said how the men came to be inside the pit.

Fire crews from Tafalla went to the farm with a team trained for hard rescues. A rescue helicopter, a medical helicopter and a life support ambulance were also sent. The response included a medical team from Caparroso and a crisis support worker.

Police officers from Tafalla joined the rescue and began work on the case. The bodies will go to the Navarre Institute of Legal Medicine for autopsies. The Policía Foral unit that deals with serious accidents is leading the inquiry.

Reports gave the men’s ages as 61, 37 and 33, but did not name them. Local sources said the deaths had caused deep shock in nearby Caparroso. Political parties and trade unions also sent messages of sympathy.

Earlier cases do not explain this accident

Reports described the Pitillas deaths as Spain’s worst event of this kind since April 2003. In that earlier case, four members of one family died at a livestock farm in Los Dolores, Murcia. That toll belongs only to the Murcia case and is not part of the Pitillas total.

Navarre had another serious farm pit accident in Leitza in December 2023. A 74-year-old man died after he was poisoned while working inside a slurry pit. A second worker was taken to hospital after he was also poisoned.

Those earlier events do not show what caused the deaths in Pitillas. The police inquiry and the planned autopsies will seek to establish what happened.

Source: El Español, ABC, elDiario.es and 20minutos.