Jan. 13--An Indiana County farmer trapped in eight feet of corn inside a silo in Washington Township was rescued Thursday by firefighters and emergency personnel.
The man, whose identity was not revealed, was flown by emergency helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital. His condition was not known, although a fire chief who helped guide the rescue operations said he appeared to have escaped serious injury.
Peter Yacovone, chief of the Creekside Volunteer Fire Company, said the three-hour ordeal came to a happy conclusion around 5:30 p.m.
"It was a very good ending," Yacovone said. "I'm proud of everyone who helped. It was a very good day. It was the sweetest thing."
Yacovone said the man, described as being in his 50s, was in danger of sinking deeper and deeper into the corn and of possibly suffocating. Emergency personnel administered oxygen to the farmer, and he was administrated fluids by means of an IV that was lowered from the top of the silo into its depths, Yacovone said.
The chief estimated the silo was 20 to 25 feet in height.
With family members looking on, firefighters finally were able to hoist the man by means of a pulley attached to an aerial truck up through a small round hatch at the top of the silo. The man was strapped to a horizontal rescue basket. To get him through the silo hatch, emergency workers tilted the basket into a vertical position, Yacovone said.
"The man was awake. He never lost consciousness," the chief said. "He was relaxed."
Families members remained calm through most of the rescue attempt, Yacovone said, although there was a momentary fright with the arrival of so many emergency personnel.
The farm on Midd Road in a secluded area of the township was slippery with mud, making it difficult for firefighters and others to get around, Yacovone said.
Two firemen from Creekside -- brothers Cory and Cody Hitchings -- were in the silo with the trapped man for three hours. Other emergency workers spent considerable time there as well, according to the chief.
Workers steadied themselves with wooden planks that were laid on top of the bed of corn, Yacovone said. Without the planks, they, too, were tending to sink into the corn. Without being inside the silo himself, Yacovone said he was at a loss to explain how the extrication was accomplished.
"I don't know how they popped him out," he said.
It was not immediately clear how the man managed to become embedded in the corn. The farmer and a younger man were evidently taking some of the corn from the silo and placing it onto a truck.
The younger man was not trapped.
As darkness began to fall, Creekside firemen hauled out a new 3,000-watt light tower, which Yacovone said "has paid for itself already."
