Abstract: At approximately 8:30 p.m. on March 25, 1989, Employee #1, age 17, and a coworker were emptying a covered railroad car, serial #FL 1375, that had three compartments. Two of the compartments were empty and the third was one-half to two-thirds full of ammonium nitrate. The fertilizer was gravity fed to a conveyor system at the bottom. Employee #1 and the coworker alternated using an 18 ft pole to poke into the vortex and break up clumps. They apparently decided that it would be easier to kick at the clumps and climbed into the cone of the hopper, but lost their grip and fell into the quicksand-like prilled fertilizer. The coworker attempted to assist Employee #1 but was unsuccessful; he got out and went to turn off the conveyor system and to get help. Paramedics on site attempted a medical rescue but considered Employee #1 to have suffocated in the prilled ammonium nitrate.