Manure-pit methane kills five at farm

BRIDGEWATER, Va. – Deadly methane gas emanating from a dairy farm’s manure pit killed five people – a Mennonite farmer who climbed into the pit to unclog a pipe, and then, in frantic rescue attempts that failed, his wife, two young daughters and a farmhand.

“They all climbed into the pit to help,” Sheriff Donald Farley said.

“You cannot smell it, you cannot see it, but it’s an instant kill,” explained Dan Brubaker.

Scott Showalter, 34, apparently was transferring manure from one small pit to a larger holding pond on Monday evening, the sheriff said.

About once a week, waste is pumped from the roughly 9-foot-deep pit into a larger pond. When something clogged the drain, Showalter shimmied through the 4-foot opening into the enclosure, similar to an underground tank. He would have climbed down a ladder into about 18 inches of manure.

“He immediately succumbed,” Farley said.

Believing Showalter had suffered a heart attack, police said, a farmhand followed him moments later and also passed out.

That’s when another farm worker alerted Showalter’s wife, Phyillis.

“The family took off to try to get him,” said Sonny Layman, who rents a house on the farm. “Phyillis threw the phone out at me and asked me to dial 911.” Layman instead followed her and two of the Showalters’ four children.

By the time he got to the pit a few feet away, “They were all gone, except Phyillis.”

Layman said he tried to pull the woman out but could not. She died, along with daughters Shayla, 11, and Christina, 9, and farmhand Amous Stoltzfus, 24.