Emergency crews spent more than seven hours Thursday working to rescue someone who became trapped in a grain bin in southern Livingston County.
Gridley fire and ambulance crews were called to the farm in rural Gridley around 12:10 p.m. for a victim who became trapped in the bin, said Gridley Fire Chief Casey Knobloch.
Multiple emergency departments responded to the incident that was resolved at 7:55 p.m. when the person was extricated from the bin. Knobloch said the victim was in stable condition and taken to a local hospital.
The MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) Division 25 based in LaSalle joined in the nearly day-long rescue effort, according to a social media post from the Normal Fire Department [NFD].
“It is a delicate operation because if the grain shifts the wrong direction, it could envelop the patient further or bury the rescuers,” said NFD.
According to the National Ag Safety Database, an adult can become completely engulfed within 20 seconds if they sink into the flowing grain.
The Central Illinois Farm Network reports data from the Agricultural Safety and Health Program at Purdue University indicating there were 30 documents grain entrapments in the U.S. in 2021, and a majority of those incidents were fatal.
