BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[mine]](/editions/1998/10/13/mine_130x193.jpg)
Rescuers assemble at the Dravo Lime Mine Co. in Pendleton County Monday after a store bin caved in.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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CARNTOWN, Ky. -- Rotating shifts of emergency workers and dogs contiued to search today for an employee who is thought to be trapped beneath gravel from a storage silo.
The bottom of the silo collapsed just after 9 a.m. Monday, unleashing a 10- to 12-foot high pile of lime gravel weighing an estimated 600 tons at Dravo Lime Co.'s Black River Division, in Pendleton County.
Workers, aided by cranes and backhoes, searched through the night for a 45-year-old quality-control chemist at Black River, about 45 miles southeast of Cincinnati.
The employee, whose name was not released, worked for 22 years at the plant, which is capable of producing more than 1.3 million tons of lime annually.
The flowing gravel crushed a building below where the chemist was likely on the ground floor gathering lime samples from a conveyor belt to be tested, said Ronald Sommer, vice president of corporate communications at the company's Pittsburgh headquarters.
He called the accident "highly unusual."
Rescuers were using backhoes to remove the gravel and search for the worker.
Mr. Sommer, who was at the scene along with about 100 emergency personnel from about 20 agencies throughout the Tristate, said officials are unsure how and why the bottom of the silo collapsed. Workers spent parts of Monday trying to shore up the rubble, and several cranes were being used to stabilize the silo.
Dravo officials are cooperating with the federal Mine Safety Health Administration, which is overseeing the investigation, Mr. Sommer said. Also at the scene were officials from the state Disaster Emergency Services and the Kentucky Fire Marshal Hazardous Materials Office.
American Red Cross workers served refreshments to rescue officials who took turns searching for the missing worker. Meanwhile, members of the missing worker's family spent time inside the command post receiving counseling, one official said.
Occupying about 1,500 acres in Pendleton and Campbell counties, Black River employs more than 280 workers.
![[mine]](/editions/1998/10/13/mine_371x550.jpg)
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