Body of worker trapped after silo collapses outside Philadelphia is found

The body of a worker trapped when a 125-foot silo collapsed last week at a shipping port outside Philadelphia was found Sunday, authorities said.

The silo containing concrete mix at Riverside Industrial Complex in Bucks County collapsed late Wednesday, trapping Anthony Gabriele under tons of steel and stony granules.

Officials searched the debris for hours before terming the operation a recovery rather than a rescue mission, citing the lack of air pockets and the 10-degree temperatures.

"They are hand-digging him out now and disentangling him from the wreckage," Bristol Township Acting Police Chief Ralph Johnson said in a statement Sunday, adding that Gabriele's body would be transferred to the county coroner's office.

The silo is part of a complex of facilities used to store scrap steel, gypsum, coal, grain, salt, fertilizer and other materials off loaded from cargo ships docking at an adjacent deep-water port on the Delaware River.

Dr. David Jaslow, medical director for Bucks County's technical rescue team, termed the rescue operation a nightmarish scenario combining the treachery of a building collapse with tons of powder from a nearly full silo rushing down and engulfing everything in its path.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the collapse.