By Hattie Brown Garrow
The Virginian-Pilot
SUFFOLK, Va. — Rescue workers spent about 90 minutes Thursday morning freeing a man who fell into a silo about one-third full of peanuts.
Two Birdsong Peanuts workers were checking the level when one fell into the storage tank, city spokeswoman Debbie George said. Firefighters received the report just after 9 a.m.
The silo, in the 300 block of Factory Street, is about 50 feet tall, George said.
A co-worker stood on a platform inside the silo and held a line connected to the trapped man to keep him from sinking deeper, said Battalion Chief Ted Adams, of the Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue. Vibrations from passing tractor-trailers threatened to disturb the peanuts.
“He was submerged under the peanuts,” Adams said. “When we got to the top, we couldn’t see him.”
Fearing he would suffocate, they passed him a self-contained breathing apparatus, Adams said.
Technical rescue experts from the Virginia Beach Fire Department were at the scene assisting, George said.
The 46-year-old worker — who has not yet been identified — was connected to another line and lifted out of the silo about 10:30 a.m. He climbed down the ladder on his own and refused treatment.
Birdsong representatives declined to speak with reporters at the scene and had not returned a phone message as of Thursday evening.
“They are very grateful for the outcome,” George said of company officials. “They will be conducting an investigation, but they do not want to speak at this time.”
Suffolk has a rescue company that trains to handle these kinds of scenarios, Adams said. Birdsong officials allow them to use the silos occasionally to practice setting up a “hauling system” of ropes and pulleys. The rescue workers don’t go inside the silos, but they do lift and lower a life-size dummy on the exteriors.
Pilot staffers Cindy Clayton, Jake Hayes and Maureen Watts contributed to this report.
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