Recovery Effort Resumes in Search For Worker Who Fell Into Medley Silo

Recovery efforts have begun again in the search for the body of a Titan America worker who fell into a concrete silo in Medley Aug. 17, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.

“Heavy winds and storms made conditions unsafe to proceed for a couple of days, but recovery efforts are underway again,” Titan American spokeswoman Kate McClain said in an email to NBC 6 South Florida on Tuesday.

Pierre Mezidor, 58, of North Miami fell 140 feet when the roof of a concrete silo collapsed at the company’s Pennsuco cement plant a week and a half ago. The search for Mezidor turned from a rescue to a recovery operation after he was not found nor showed any signs of life or communication on the day of the roof collapse.

Mezidor was measuring how much cement was stored in the silo when the roof caved in and he fell onto the dry, packed cement powder.

McClain said in a phone interview that the silo is actually 200 feet tall – authorities initially gave a higher figure – and was about 75 percent full when the accident happened.

Since then, rain from Tropical Storm Isaac and other storms have fallen into the structure. The mix of the water and cement doesn’t exactly make hardened concrete but does make it more difficult to dig through the debris, McClain told The Miami Herald.

But the wind has been the primary obstacle in the recovery operation, which employs tall cranes to reach over the top of the silo, according to the newspaper.

There are three cranes on the site now that can lower recovery workers down into the silo, McClain told NBC 6.

Titan America is now working in tandem with recovery experts it has brought in from the around the country for the recovery effort, she said.

Titan America is not currently delivering cement in bulk from the Medley location, though it has shipped some bags, McClain said.

“But obviously we’re not working at capacity right now," she said.

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