VIENNA, S.D.–Rescue crews worked for about three hours Wednesday to free a man trapped in a grain bin in Vienna.
Clark County Sheriff Rob McGraw says the initial call came in around 9:20 this morning of a man buried up to his chest in corn at the privately-owned Vienna Elevator.
Fire departments from Vienna, Willow Lake, and Bryant responded, along with Clark Ambulance, Willow Lake Ambulance, Clark County Sheriff’s Department, Clark Police Department, and Clark County Emergency Management.
Rescue crews that included an Agtegra Technical Rescue Team that came in from Bath, South Dakota placed an extraction tube around the man to prevent compression injuries, and to prevent him from being buried further.
An auger system was also used to remove corn from the bin.
The man was eventually freed around 12:30 this afternoon, was placed on a stretcher, and flown from the scene in an Avera Health System helicopter to a Sioux Falls hospital. McGraw says the man was,”alert and talking” at the time.
Clark Police Chief Jeremy Wellnitz says the rescued man is a 26 year-old from Hayti. His name was not immediately available.
Wellnitz says rescue crews did. “an”amazing job,” and that authorities are, “grateful for the outcome.”
(Mike Tanner, KWAT, contributed this report.)
