A worker was pulled out of a sugar silo after he became trapped inside Friday, a rescue that a battalion chief described as being long and labor-intensive.
The incident happened at about 7:30 a.m. at Western Sugar Co-Op in Billings, KTVQ-TV reports. It wasn't clear if the worker fell into the silo while doing maintenance.
Billings firefighters constructed a wooden box around the worker and then used a rope system to hoist him out of the silo through a small opening at the top. Battallion Chief Kevin Bentz said the rescue proved challenging because the fineness of the sugar meant that it would continue to fill in around the man as firefighters tried to pull him out.
According to Bentz, the worker was alive, breathing and conscious when crews arrived at the scene, and he was out of the silo just before 12:30 p.m. No details were released about the man's injuries once he was pulled from the silo.
