“It’s pretty rare for me to get in a bin with that amount of grain, but I had to get the beans out," he said.

Cleaning out grain bins is something he has done more times than he can count. But on that August day something went terribly wrong. The soybeans on the north side of the bin were up to the eaves; he was working to take as much as he could off the north side. He ran out of grain-vacuum tube so he attempted to turn around to clear space around another door. That’s when soybeans started caving in around him.

“I lost control of the grain vac, and it went straight below me,” Wilson said. “That inside door was open and I grabbed ahold of it. There was so much pressure that it was all I could do to hang on to it.”

Once they realized what was happening, his coworkers immediately shut down the grain vac and called 911. Volunteer first responders from the Moravia Fire Department arrived on the scene to find Wilson buried in grain up to his shoulders. They immediately went to work.

Fire departments from nearby Centerville and Albia, Iowa, soon arrived to assist in the rescue. Wilson was located close to the grain-bin door, which made the situation tricky. With 2 feet of grain between him and the doorway, and a 25-foot pile of soybeans behind him, it wasn’t easy for responders to reach him. They knew they were in for a challenge.

Responders were finally able to put a tube in the bin to relieve pressure around Wilson. But they soon realized they were facing another problem. The grain-vac tube was pressed against Wilson, preventing rescuers from putting the rescue tube securely around him. About an hour into the rescue, first responders started contacted nearby farmers. They requested the farmers bring grain vacs to the scene to help.

Despite the assistance, responders were preparing for the worst.

“The grain was 25 feet up on the backside of the bin,” Capt. Ryan Moore said. “The more grain we took off that front side, the more came from the top. And then it started shoving our rescue tube over sideways.”

Once holes were cut, grain-vac tubes were used to remove grain from both sides of the bin. That allowed responders to relieve enough pressure to remove Wilson from the bin. When he walked out of the grain bin, the first responders couldn’t believe it. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Des Moines and was sent home that night.

But first responders know that future events might not always be so successful. Things can go wrong. Responders always need a backup plan and a backup plan for the backup plan. To keep farmers safe, they also need support from businesses and communities. Fortunately the Moravia Fire Department had received a grain-rescue tube just prior to the incident because a local business had donated it.

It takes a split second for something bad to happen, and an instant before rescue plans are thrown out the window. We continue to hear stories of local fire departments calling area farmers to assist in rescue calls by supplying grain vacs. But what if all first responders arriving at entrapment calls already had them as part of their standard rescue equipment? What if they didn’t need to wait hours for reprieve and assistance to arrive?

The team at Beck’s hopes that that will one day be a reality. By sharing stories of courage and heroic efforts through Beck’s Day Ever, Beck’s is working to raise awareness for rural rescue and fire departments across the country who dedicate their lives to helping farmers and communities stay safe.

Visit beckshybrids.com/becks-day-ever for more information and to learn how Beck’s is working to help communities across rural America through the Beck’s Day Ever program.