Family’s Generosity Came In Handy Tuesday During Grain Bin Rescue
Family’s Generosity Came In Handy Tuesday During Grain Bin Rescue
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Family’s Generosity Came In Handy Tuesday During Grain Bin RescueA farm family that donated to the Mentone Fire Department saw the benefits of their generosity first hand Tuesday when a family member had to be rescued from a grain bin.
MFD Fire Chief Mike Yazel said a grain bin at 1128 W. Ind. 25, Marshall County, just west of Mentone, was being emptied Tuesday when the corn wouldn’t go down into the auger correctly.
Jim Wise went into the grain bin to break up the grain, but the material shifted quicker than he anticipated and he became trapped. The 44,000-bushel grain bin was about half full, Yazel said, or 10 to 12 feet deep.
Jim called his son Jeff on the radio. When Jeff couldn’t help his dad out, he called Yazel, who also happens to be their neighbor. Yazel called central dispatch at 9:16 a.m. to rescue Jim, who found himself trapped waist-deep in the material.
Rochester Fire Department provided a ladder truck, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory provided a Tactical Rescue Team and the Tippecanoe Fire Department also assisted.
“We didn’t know if we would have to empty the bin or not and it takes a lot of guys to do that,” Yazel said.
The Wise family had made substantial donations during the Mentone Fire Department’s fund drive for a grain tube and grain auger, which came in handy with the rescue Tuesday.
They had also previously let the fire department train on their farm with the grain bins.
“It was one of those unusual situations,” Yazel said. “It was the first time we used the grain tube and we’ve had it for six years. We’ve trained on it,” but we hadn’t needed to use it.
A grain tube is made up of lightweight aluminum. Rescuers can lift a panel up and join with another to make a grain bin tube.
A grain auger is an agricultural screw elevator with a long metal tube with an enclosed metal auger that is used to raise and transport grain from the ground to the top of bins and for loading trucks.
Yazel said Wise had no injuries and was able to eventually climb out on his own. “He’s in good shape,” he said.
Yazel said it was a fortunate situation since grain bin incidents tend to be 75 percent fatal. “He was one of the 25 percent that did not end up that way,” he said.
“It was just a really good case of bringing different departments together for a common cause. It went flawlessly. It all worked out well,”?he said.
