PORTLAND, Ore. – A contract employee with a sanitation company died when he fell into a meat grinder at Interstate Meat Distributors in Clackamas, Ore., according to local news reports.

Hugo Avalos Chanon of Portland and several other workers with DCS Sanitation Management, Inc. were cleaning grinding equipment at the plant shortly before midnight on April 27. Avalos fell into the grinder while cleaning the equipment. Another employee hit an emergency switch that stopped the machine, but Avalos died at the scene, according to news reports.

Authorities with Oregon OSHA are investigating the accident.