A juvenile is safe after being trapped in a grain bin Monday morning.
The Clinton Fire Department says he is an employee at the Hankins Grain Company in Clinton, Missouri.
The incident happened around 9 a.m. as workers were taking grain out of a bin. Wet corn caused some of the grain to get stuck, so employees were in the bin trying to loosen it up. When it loosened, that’s when one of the employees got sucked into the grain and became trapped.
Thankfully, another worker witnessed the incident and was able to call for help.
When firefighters arrived, they found the teen buried in corn up to his chest.
The fire department urges people to stay out of grain elevators.
“Once you start getting encapsulated and buried in this grain, the more you move, the deeper you get buried and it’s very difficult to get out and if you don’t have a timely response from a trained rescue personnel, the situation could be much different,” said Clinton Fire Department Chief Mark Manuel.
Manuel says firefighters used what’s called the “Great Wall of Rescue” to save the victim. The device is designed specifically for grain bin entrapment. It’s a device with several wall sections allowing firefighters to slide a wall beside a victim, preventing more grain from coming in.
Once the victim is captured with the device, they use an auger to pull the grain out from around the victim and free them. It was a process that took about three hours.
“It worked flawlessly, exactly the way it was supposed to. This is the first time in an actual rescue situation that we have had to deploy it and use it. Our crews have done a lot of training on this.”
The victim was taken to Golden Valley Memorial Hospital for evaluation and CFD says he is in good condition.