Preparing Grain Bins for Harvest Fatality File

On March 7, a farmer on a Hughes County property about 30 miles southeast of Pierre became trapped in a grain bin to mid-torso depth for about six hours before being rescued by rescue workers from three fire departments and a grain company. 

The man entered the bin and became trapped in the corn, at which time another person on the scene was able to secure a rope around the man’s chest to prevent further slippage into the grain.

Attempts to build a temporary “tube” around the man to lift him out from above failed, so responders had to use saws to slowly cut holes in the bin to drain the corn and reach the man with a stretcher. The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Two men die in grain bin accidents 

RUSK COUNTY – Two men are dead in two unrelated grain bin accidents this month.

According to the Rusk Rusk County Sheriff’s Office, a Glen Flora man died after he was pulled from a corn bin on Thursday, September 19.

The fatality occurred at the Sheldon Co-op in the Village of Sheldon. While Kevin Wiemer, 58, of Glen Flora was rescued from the corn bin, Sheriff Jeffrey Wallace says life-saving measures were unsuccessful. Wiemer was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 74-year-old Minnesota man also suffered the same fate after being trapped inside a grain bin on a farm in Faxon Township just west of Belle Plaine.