A worker at Corus Estates & Vineyards LLC, also known as 12th & Maple Wine Co., was found unresponsive Feb. 1 in an empty 30,000-gallon wine tank. The 39-year-old man’s task was to enter through the bottom of the tank and pump out about 500 gallons of wine remnants into another tank. Low-pressure nitrogen gas was pumped in from the top of the tank to prevent oxidation of the remnants; the man was asphyxiated as a result of the displacement of oxygen due to the nitrogen gas in the tank, according to the investigation. A “confined space” means it is not […]