Crews Race Against Falling Corn to Rescue Trapped Farmer
Published: June 7, 2005
A Delmarva farmer is fortunate to be alive. He got trapped inside a corn silo on his Centreville farm. But thanks to some quick thinking firefighters, that farmer was rescued from almost certain death by suffocation.
Firefighters say they arrived to find the man inside his silo with his leg caught in the auger.
“An auger runs from one side to another,” said Capt. Frank Callahan of the Centreville Fire Department. “I guess he slipped, went into one side and got between two blades and a piece of metal.”
Corn was coming down around him, so it was a race to get him out before he suffocated. As more firefighters came from surrounding areas, they came up with a rescue plan.
“From there we worked to determine how we were going to remove the victim from the corn and silo he was inside,” said Chief Brian Bashista of the Dover Fire Department.
The firefighters used a cutting tool to free his foot from the metal blades, but it took time. Back boards were used to hold the corn back from the victim. It took about 50 firefighters and nearly four hours later before the farmer was rescued.
Callahan said despite the odds, no one was injured.
“It was already dangerous enough and once you get five or six guys in there, the corn starts moving around,” he said.
Callahan said the rescue was the result of a team effort. He also commented that it was a rare rescue.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life,” he said.
The farmer is recovering.
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: