SUBLETTE – There was a scary situation Wednesday, Aug. 21 in Sublette when a man was sinking into corn in a grain-bin elevator.

With the help of approximately 15 different fire and emergency service departments, the main exited the elevator safely.

“We were called about the incident around noon. We were told a man was trapped in a grain bin at 1519 Sublette Road,” said Nick Dinges, the Sublette Fire Department assistant fire chief and CEO of Dinges Fire. “We got here, and the gentleman was approximately waist deep in the corn. We called immediately for a response from Sublette and Amboy fire and EMS departments, immediately followed by a TRT response from Division 18 and Division 25 for technical rescue on this incident.

“When we get into a grain bin type of rescue, it’s an abnormal situation for us. We have the equipment at Amboy and Sublette, but we try to bring in the experts to make sure that we’re doing the best that we can for the patient. In addition to the rescue teams we dispatched, we also had advanced ambulance to provide paramedic care as well as a OSF Life Flight helicopter.

“We wanted to cover all of our bases to make sure everyone was safe.”

Dinges said the man, who was about 15-20 feet into the bin from the top, believed he fell into the corn around 11 a.m. When the rescue was marked complete at 2:47 p.m., he had been trapped in the bin for over 3 ½ hours.