#Death via corn silo full#

“I don't think that we could have changed anything on this one,” says Buford. Some even came back out to the farm to assess the situation. The weeks after Schneider was rescued, Buford and others played back the situation countless times in their minds. “This is probably a quarter to a half-mile driveway, and it was packed.” Even sheriff deputies, neighboring farmers and other local business owners rushed to help as soon as word of Schneider’s situation had spread. Volunteer firefighters from the neighboring town of Concordia had also worked with Alma to craft the plan and then get Schneider out safely. “Firefighters alone, I would say there was probably 50 to 55 firefighters here, all volunteer,” says Buford.īuford and Schneider have stayed in touch and became friends after the successful grain bin entrapment rescue in 2015. There weren’t just a handful of volunteer firefighters and first responders that worked tirelessly to help rescue him, as he exited the grain bin, he saw there was an entire team.

#Death via corn silo full#

“This was all full of corn already so I just slid all the way out to the ground out here,” Schneider says standing in front of the bin where he’d been trapped. They also called the local lumberyard to cut half-inch plywood, which the firefighters would place around Schneider.Īfter 2.5 hours of trying to rescue Schneider, he was finally free. Buford says they just assessed the situation and searched for solutions to get the pressure off Schneider. There had been no training to cut holes around the bin to act as a valve for the corn to be released. The holes were patched after the accident in order to repair the bin. The grain bin still bears evidence of the grain bin rescue from 2015. And then we would go to another one,” remembers Buford. “When we needed to close it, we just shut it. The firefighters then pivoted quickly, knowing they would need to cut even more holes in the bin. After they cut the first hole, the corn slid behind him, nearly pushing him over. I think this is similar,” adds Schneider.Īs he stayed calm, Buford and the team outside quickly generated a plan to get the pressure off Schneider by cutting rectangular holes in the bin to drain the corn. “Well, I think you've seen examples of when there's a water rescue, they tell you let the rescuers do the work and take care of you, because so many people panic and fight them. He’s always used the saying “panic is an option, not a requirement,” and on that December day, he did everything he could to not fight it. “I figured out real quick that as I was breathing, I was kind of packing that corn in,” says Schneider.Īs the seconds turned into minutes, and the minutes into hours, Schneider knew he had to stay calm. The pressure is something Schneider says is nearly indescribable. “On the way down, I did think, ‘Boy, this is going to be a tough way to go, because I could start to feel the pressure already on me.” “There was an opening in it, and they put oxygen down through that opening, as well as just put it around me just to keep the corn from coming at me more,” Schneider recalls.

Even without the right equipment or training, the two firefighters who arrived first noticed a 5-gallon bucket on top of the bin something that proved to be crucial. “I prayed before we got the rescue started that 'You're going to have to help me' because we didn't have the training that we needed at the time.”Īlma's fire department didn’t have the proper grain bin rescue equipment in 2015 either. “As we were coming out, one of them was already on top telling us what we were going to need to do,” says Buford. The truck Buford and another volunteer fire fighter were in when they rushed to Schneider's farm.Īs Buford and another volunteer firefighter hopped in the truck to rush to Schneider’s farm, Buford discovered two other firefighters happened to be only about a mile away from Schneider’s farm at the time. “That was one of the worst calls that had come in for quite a while,” remembers Jeff Buford who was the Alma Fire Protection Chief in 2015. “He was able to, with his hands, get my head uncovered.”īy that time, it was 9:30 a.m., and Schneider’s son quickly called 911. “When he got in, all that corn came off of that comb where he stepped in and he just buried me,” he adds.