Man Trapped In Cedar Rapids Grain Bin Shares His Experience

Last Thursday, the Cedar Rapids Fire Department was called to a farm after a man was trapped in a 7,000-bushel grain bin. Among the first firemen at the scene was also working his last full day on the job. Darrell Benish was rescued from the bin. Benish tells KCRG-TV that he was trying to push the auger with his foot when he slipped.

The suction sucked me in there, and in the meantime, nobody saw what was happening

Benish was stuck in the bin for around two hours with the freezing grain covering his body up to his shoulders. Firefighters tried to insert a barrier to keep Benish from being completely covered in the corn. He says he couldn’t breathe.

Because even when they took the corn out -- it was still kind of rolling down all the time. It was probably the most pain I’ve ever had in my life,

Brian Hall, Cedar Rapids fire captain, was the first on the scene and says they were lucky.

To have a situation like this where we can make a rescue and the person survives, very rare,

To help release as much corn as possible, first responders cut four holes in the bin. Benish’s position in the bin is a factor in the corn trapping him as it did.

He was probably six feet inside the door. Which also I think accounted for some of the crushing factors. He was not in the center and everything coming at him from all directions.

In Hall’s 33-year career, this was his first-grain bin rescue, and with Hall retiring last Sunday, it made him reflect on the impact his work has made over the years.