Three workers die after falling into a slurry pit at a Navarra pig farm

The accident at El Salobrar

On 4 November, shortly after 12:15, three workers died at a pig farm in the El Salobrar area, between Pitillas and Murillo el Cuende in Navarra. Early information cited by the Parliament of Navarra says one worker fell into the slurry pit and the other two tried to rescue him, and all three died of asphyxia caused by gases. Emergency crews from Tafalla, a technical rescue group, helicopters and Foral Police reached the site, but could not save them. RTVE reports that two of the dead were uncle and nephew, and municipal sources told EFE that all three lived in Caparroso. The ages differ between outlets: RTVE gives 61, 38 and 31, while the Parliament's note gives 61, 37 and 33. The cause is still under investigation.

Unions demand action

UGT and CCOO gathered outside their Pamplona offices at 11:00 on 5 November, displaying black ribbons and slogans such as 'No more deaths at work'. Soraya Protomártir, UGT's organisation secretary in Navarra, said 18 workers have died at work in the region so far in 2026, and called Navarra one of the Spanish communities with the highest accident rates. She put the national toll at more than 700 deaths a year, or two or three a day, and demanded an updated prevention law, which she said is stalled in the Congress's Mesa, along with more staff for the Labour Inspectorate. Protomártir summed up the demand this way:

“Because going to work cannot cost us our lives.”

Alfredo Sanz, CCOO's occupational health secretary in Navarra, said the region's accident figures are the worst in the whole state and that the regional government has to look into the problem. He added:

“A community like ours cannot afford for people to go to their jobs and then not be able to return home.”

CCOO's written statement called for a thorough investigation, described all workplace accidents as avoidable and urged firms to follow the prevention law strictly. LAB counted 67 work-related deaths in Euskadi and Navarra so far in 2026, and a coalition of six occupational health unions has called a mobilization for Friday, 6 November.

Institutional response and earlier cases

The Parliament of Navarra opened its plenary with a minute of silence, and its president, Unai Hualde, passed on the chamber's condolences and solidarity to the families. RTVE and LaSexta both describe the Pitillas deaths as the most serious accident of this kind in Spain since April 2003, when four members of one family died from inhaling toxic gases at a livestock farm in Los Dolores, Murcia. LaSexta also reports that a 74-year-old man died in a sheep farm slurry pit in Leitza, Navarra, in December 2023, and a second worker was hospitalised. El Confidencial also mentions a Leitza accident of the same kind, but dates it differently.

Why slurry pits are so deadly

El Confidencial, citing a report by Ángela Prado Mira, an intensive care doctor at Albacete General Hospital, says stirring a slurry pit releases hydrogen sulfide, a gas heavier than air that pushes out oxygen and settles in low areas. The report says this creates an invisible, oxygen-poor pocket that can cause neurological collapse within seconds. It also names a 'chained rescue effect' that explains why several people often die in the same incident. El Confidencial links the Pitillas deaths to earlier accidents of the same kind in Leitza and Los Dolores.