BERGAMO – A 75-year-old man working in his cheese warehouse was crushed to death when as many as 25,000 heavy Grana Padano cheeses tumbled on top of him after shelfing collapsed in the latest of Italy’s rash of industrial accidents, firefighters said.

 Giacomo Chiapparini, was working Sunday with a forklift truck moving the precious cheeses inside his Grano laboratory at Romano di Lombardia in the northern Bergamo province when the shelves gave way without warning, firemen said. As many as 21 firefighting units and other rescue services raced to the scene Sunday evening but they were unable to find the elderly worker’s lifeless corpse until 8.45 a.m. Monday morning.

 Carabinieri paramilitary police opened an inquiry into the accident. Chiapparini was the youngest of seven siblings and after working in the family farming business had set up his own livestock farm, producing Grano since at least 2006 with annual production then of 15,000 of the hefty cheeses a year, winning several prizes for the high quality foodstuff, considered by connoisseurs to be often better than Parmesan. 

 jp