Crews spent a little over five hours freeing a Grainco employee from a corn silo Wednesday, the Bristol-Kendall Fire Department said Thursday morning.
Kendall County Sheriff's Police and the Bristol-Kendall Fire Department responded to Grainco, 9512 W. Helmar Road in Lisbon Township, at 3:19 p.m. Wednesday after a male employee became trapped in a grain bin with his leg stuck in a grain auger Wednesday afternoon, according to police.
Fire officials said the man was buried in a corn silo up to his head, and firefighters who arrived on the scene found "a male with his lower extremities stuck in the auger system with corn surrounding his body up to thighs, with additional grain towering 30 feet into the air angling towards him."
Bristol-Kendall fire officials said the department responded with three engines, two ambulances, one aerial truck, one heavy rescue vehicle and three chief officers with an automatic aid response from Newark. A subsequent request was made for a medical helicopter and a technical rescue from the Gold C.A.R.T. team.
Rescuers attached a safety harness to the man and placed a grain rescue tube around him to prevent him from becoming buried any further by the grain.
After an action plan was developed to remove the corn from the silo and disentangle the man's lower extremities from the auger system, requests went out for specialized equipment, including the City of Yorkville's Vactor vehicle to remove corn from the silo. Representatives from Hogan-Walker and Kane Equipment were also called in for technical consultation of the auger system, fire officials said.
Police said the man was conscious following the incident as he received medical attention.
The man was airlifted via LifeStar to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, police said. No further information on his condition was available Wednesday night.
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