Rescuers have described how they freed a worker trapped in a grain silo in central Victoria, saying the man was in significant pain and the operation likely saved his life.
The man, aged in his 60s, became trapped at GrainCorp's Dunolly facility on Thompson Street on Tuesday 6 October. Emergency services were called at about 3.30pm after workers at the site failed to free him themselves, and the Country Fire Authority's (CFA) specialist Oscar One Technical Rescue Brigade was brought in from Bendigo.
Brigade captain Karl Shay said the grain was pushing the man's leg onto a bracket attached to an auger running through the bottom of the silo. “He was quite distressed,” he said. “He was in a lot of pain because the grain was pushing his leg onto a bracket, which was coming off an auger which runs through the bottom of the silo.”
Crews had to remove grain without causing more to collapse around the man. “Once you take a handful out and remove it, any higher grain obviously comes down and replaces that,” Mr Shay said. “The idea is, you build a wall around them, and then you extract the grain out from within the wall around the casualty enough that you can free them.”
Images of the rescue show a makeshift barrier built around the man from corrugated iron, metal barricades and road signs. The CFA said the silo was about 10 per cent full at the time and the man was trapped above his knee.
Crews from Dunolly, Maryborough and Bealiba attended alongside Fire Rescue Victoria, Victoria Police, the SES and Ambulance Victoria. CFA commander Hugh Kelly praised the cooperation. “Everyone worked really well together,” he said. “These are complex incidents, so it was really amazing that we were able to achieve such a positive outcome.”
The incident was declared safe at 7:08pm, and the man was flown to Bendigo Health. He was released the next day. A WorkSafe investigation is ongoing, and GrainCorp has been contacted for comment.