A man was successfully rescued from a grain bin south of Newton on Tuesday. Newton Fire Chief Jarrod Wellik says Rick Nearmyer became trapped after he tried to unclog an auger. “We arrived to find a person trapped within the corn, up to about the mid-torso,” Wellik said. “He was breathing and everything was good with him.”
Nearmyer was trapped in the corn for about an hour before he was freed with the help of sectional grain bin rescue tubes. “They’re basically a set of snap together tubes that allow you to dig the corn out around the victim without having the other corn fall down on top of them,” Wellik said.
In addition to Newton firefighters, Jasper County Sheriff’s deputies, and firefighters from Kellogg, Monroe, and Reasnor responded to the scene. “Lifeflight also came in out of Des Moines. They were there for standby and luckily we didn’t need them,” Wellik said. Nearmyer was treated at the scene and was not transported to a hospital.
(Reporting by Randy Van, KCOB, Newton)