By Mikayla van Loon
Emergency services were called to a unique rescue in Coldstream earlier this week after a person was trapped inside a chicken feed hopper.
The food silo, roughly two metres off the ground, had become blocked, limiting the food access for the chickens on Monday 17 February.
Attempting to clear the blockage from the food drain but unsuccessful, the man climbed into the hopper. A few hours later found himself unable to get out.
Lilydale SES, alongside Coldstream and Lilydale CFA, as well as specialist rescue crews from Fire Rescue Victoria, responded to the call after the man alerted family members of his situation.
“He had his phone with him and we were remarking that two things were working in his favour. One was he took his phone with him and was able to ring relatives to say, ‘Hey, I’m stuck in here. Can you help me out?’,” Lilydale SES unit controller Shaun Caulfield said.
“And the other one was that the weather conditions were relatively mild, because it was in full sun. So had it been 10 days ago, when it was 30, 35 degrees, it could have had a very different outcome.”
Because the silo was considered a confined space rescue, FRV were called in as the lead operators under the State of Emergency Management Plan arrangements for Victoria.
“Once operators from the technical rescue team arrived, they very quickly assessed what they needed. There were some access issues, and some of the ideal equipment they might have used wasn’t going to be able to reach where the patient was,” Mr Caulfield said.
“So in some of those circumstances, they’d use an aerial appliance, say a teleboom or ladder platform but there were difficulties in access to get that into the scene. They ended up using other techniques, with respect to ropes, to lower something into the patient and then pull him out.
“Meanwhile we found a repair patch on the side of the silo, and that was removed to try and let some fresh air and a bit of light in as well.”
Mr Caulfield said unfortunately the repaired area was not large enough for the man to get through but “one of our contingency plans” was to cut into the silo and extricate him that way.
“But in doing so, it would have destroyed the silo. That wasn’t our first choice, because obviously this is this person’s livelihood, and we don’t want to go and cause an unnecessary cost or expense from destroying things that don’t need to be done,” he said.
The man was safely rescued from the silo after two and a half hours and was checked over by Ambulance Victoria paramedics.
Confined space rescues, Mr Caulfield said, are rather uncommon, especially when height from the ground is involved.
“Confined spaces can be things like drums, vats, drains, that sort of thing, but they don’t all have the added technical element of being above the ground at a significant height as well.
“It’s the first time I’ve personally been to someone in a silo or something above ground like that.
“I’ve been to a couple of incidents in my time with people in drains, and one of someone in a vat. And obviously, with our wineries and other industries around that could happen, but it’s very rare, and particularly with a lot of work safe regulations around those things, it’s a very uncommon occurrence.”
The rescue required team work and Mr Caulfield said it was “a classic problem solving exercise” requiring all suggestions and training coming into play.
“It really highlights the collaborative working environment that we had at that job. We had SES, CFA, FRV, AV and VicPol all represented at that scene, and everyone worked very well together,” he said.
“We had some of the FRV rescue technicians using tools off the SES truck to do particular things, because our four wheel drive rescue truck was able to get to where it needed to go, and we were able to support with personnel as well.
“It was a great example of that collaborative work environment between all the agencies.”
