Man Rescued From Grain Bin In Kendall County
NEWARK, Ill. (STMW) -- Emergency crews freed a man whose leg got caught in a grain auger Wednesday afternoon in rural Kendall County.
At 3:19 p.m., sheriff's deputies were notified of the incident at the Grainco FS, Inc. elevator in the 9500 block of Helmar Road in unincorporated Lisbon Township near Newark.
A man who worked for the elevator became "trapped in a grain bin with his leg stuck in an auger," a statement from the sheriff's office said.
The man was freed and airlifted to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, police said in a statement Wednesday night.
Bristol-Kendall Fire Department Chief Mike Hitzemann said when the man was stuck in the bin, the first priority was getting the corn out from around him, to keep him from suffocating. He said emergency workers put a tube around the man and vacuumed out the corn.
"They literally built a dam around him," Hitzemann said. "They just kept working their way down. The first priority was to get the pressure off his chest."
The man was conscious and talking to workers during the rescue, Hitzemann said.
The Kendall County Combined Agency Response Team, or CART, made up of the Bristol-Kendall, Oswego and Sandwich fire departments all responded to the scene. There also was help from Plainfield and Joliet special response teams. The city of Yorkville brought its vactor truck to vacuum the corn out of the bin, and the Kendall County Sheriff's Department, who first responded to the scene, was handling traffic control.
Hitzemann said his department has responded in the past to people caught in grain bins, but never quite a situation like this.
"We train for it," he said. "But I think this is the first guy we've had to rescue like this in the 27 years I've been chief here."
Farmers bring corn and grain to be dried, stored and shipped from the Grainco facility.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)