Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Man Almost Drowns In Grain

Been involved in one rescue and 2 body recoveries for folks in grain bins..... the rescue they had started with a chain saw to cut a hole in the side.... we finished the cut with 2 K-12 saws and pours tons of grain out on the ground.

As has been mentioned, an all-too-common event in farming areas. Seems like there are more recoveries than rescues around here. As to flax, I remember a friend's dad who trucked telling me that if you were going to haul flax, your truck had better be able to haul water.

There is a scene in the movie Witness, where Harrison Ford causes a bad guy who is trying to kill him, to "drown" in a grain silo.

L.W.

Flax is especially slippery....you fall in there you're outta sight in seconds..

I worked for a very large grain company for about 30 years, and managed a number of large grain handling facilities. In that time frame, our company lost several people in “grain engulfment” accidents.
I walked on top of the grain in 100s of bins of wheat, corn, soybeans, milo, barley and oats. That is safe to do, from a grain engulfment standpoint, IF you have the gates at the bottom of the bin locked so they can not be opened, and if the grain is not somewhat deteriorated and hung up above you.
If you go into a bin on top of the grain, as the grain is being drawn out of the gates on the bottom or side, you have a pretty high risk of being engulfed and suffocating.
Unfortunately every year, several people continue to learn a hard lesson.

Almost lost a cousin this fall to corn in a bin. He was trapped for 3 hours and took 2 fire departments to get him out. Another cousin told me he was told by some of the rescuers that my trapped cousin was lucky, as only 15% survive it on average.