PHOENIX — After nearly three days of working 12 hour shifts, Phoenix fire crews found who they believe to be the missing Freeport warehouse worker, 22-year-old Oswaldo Montoya, deceased around 1:00 p.m. Saturday.
“This is not the outcome we wanted," Phoenix fire captain Todd Keller said. “He was an amazing man. He was an amazing dad.”
The search began around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday after a microburst hit the Freeport warehouse off of 43rd Avenue and Polk Street causing the side of the building to collapse with Montoya still inside.
“We have cranes, we have bobcats with grappling attachments," Keller added. "We completely exhausted all our resources in the fire department.”
Montoya had been working in the warehouse for about a year as a forklift operator. Wednesday he was working the night shift and was the only one who didn’t make it out when the severe weather hit.
“We were told he worked around the center of the warehouse and that’s where we focused most of our attention on," Keller said. "We did find the individual close to where it was described.”
This all happened about two weeks after the birth of Montoya’s child. His family spent every moment of the search waiting outside.
“The family is the main focus and they have been our main focus this entire incident," Keller said.
The Phoenix Fire Department is handing over the operation to Phoenix police, who will be working with the medical examiner’s office to confirm the identity in the coming days. There’s no timeline for when the clean-up process will be complete or when the warehouse will be operational again.
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