RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A man is left with only minor injuries after plummeting more than 40 feet from Richmond’s Southern States Silos the morning of Monday, Jan. 29.
Last July, Richmond City Council voted to demolish the iconic Southern States Silos, which have been a part of Richmond’s skyline for more than 80 years.
Therefore, not much activity happens in those empty towers — until about 5 a.m. Monday, when the Richmond Fire Department got a call from a man who said he was trapped in what he described as a “manhole” near the Manchester road site.
Richmond Fire Department Battalion Chief Bailey Martin said the phone conversation with the victim had crews preparing for a difficult extraction.
“[A manhole] is maybe a seven or eight-foot drop,” Chief Bailey Martin said.
However, it ended up being a far more rigorous rescue than anticipated. Upon arriving at the scene, responders struggled to find the victim — because he had actually fallen more than 40 feet to the ground.
Martin described where the man landed as the mid-level area of the building — where he became trapped at the bottom of a one to two-square-foot chute.
The rescue took longer than an hour and a half.
“[Crews] were able to use a rope system to pull him out,” Martin said.
According to responders, despite the steep fall, the man was able to walk away with only minor injuries.
Regardless, the incident shined a light on the dangers of abandoned structures. Similarly vacant, unfinished projects are scattered throughout the City of Richmond.
“Vacant buildings can be very dangerous, because a lot of the safety measures that are in place to prevent those kinds of things from happening are often not in place,” Martin said.
The Southern States Silos site has fencing and a few warning signs reading “Do Not Enter.”
Investigators said they don’t yet know why the man was in the building. A spokesperson for the City of Richmond said they do not believe the man was a city employee, but they’re still looking into the incident.
“I can’t say if he was authorized to be here, or what he was doing in the building,” Martin said. “But just as a general [warning] — it’s best not to be in unfamiliar buildings, especially at night.”
No matter how sturdy a structure may appear to be, responders urge community members to remember that de-commissioned, abandoned, facilities can be very dangerous.
8News reached out to the City of Richmond and the Silos’ project’s organizers for updates on the demolition of this site and potential efforts to expedite the process to prevent more incidents like Monday morning’s event from happening again.
