Man Rescued from Grain Bin

A Darlington man was airlifted Wednesday to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after a grain bin accident on a farm near C.R. 400N and 100W.

Ron Zell, 59, sustained fractures to both his legs, when an auger caught his clothing. One of the fractures was a compound break.

“He was talking to us and was in high spirits,” said Lieutenant Nate Patton of the Crawfordsville Fire Department. “He has severe lower leg injuries, which will require surgery and a long recovery. Out of all the possibilities, this is one of the better outcomes.”

The fire department responded to the call reporting the injury at 4:45 p.m. Firefighters and farm employees extricated Zell from the grain bin by cutting his clothing. The machine was not damaged during the process. Oxygen was not a concern since the bin contained about an inch of grain along the bottom.

“Our guys did an excellent job of quickly extricating him and taking care of the injury,” Patton said. “It couldn’t have gone any smoother.”

A helicopter from IU Health landed on the farm property. Assistant Fire Chief Jim Fulwider and sheriff deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office coordinated the landing.

“We had some windy conditions and were not sure whether they would fly,” Fulwider said. “Fortunately there is a lot of flat ground out here and many places to land a helicopter. Everything was in place, which made everything quicker.”

About Author

countyfiretactics

Curt Isakson is a 35 year veteran of the fire service. Curt is currently a Battalion Chief for Escambia County Fire Rescue. Previously worked 9 years with the Pensacola Fire Department where he was assigned as the Company Officer on Rescue 31. Curt’s fire service experiences started at a young age as a Junior firefighter with the Midway Fire Protection District and rose through the ranks to Captain. He has worked in volunteer, career, and combination departments.

Curt has held all ranks up to Battalion Chief and been assigned to operations, training, inspections, and was Chief of Special Operations for 7 years. Curt owns and operates County Fire Tactics that covers a very diverse range of fire service topics, as well as Firefighter Rescues, a site that documents rescues made by firefighters around the country.

He has annual contracts with numerous departments to provide standardized monthly training for these departments that respond daily together under an automatic aid agreement. Curt teaches nationally to include; FDIC, Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, Orlando Fire Conference, Atlanta Fire Conference, Bowling Green State University, and owns/operates the annual HROC, COBC, WOTF, CFT ODP on Pensacola Beach. He is a Florida Certified Fire Officer, Instructor, Inspector, Arson, and FLUSAR.

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