Man falls into grain silo

A man is in serious condition after falling 15 metres into a grain silo near Balclutha.

St John spokesman Gerard Campbell said the 45-year-old was taken by helicopter to Dunedin Hospital about 12.30pm yesterday.

Emergency services were called to an industrial address on Hillend Rd, near Coe Rd, about 11.30am.

When Stuff called the business where the incident happened, they declined to comment.

A police spokeswoman said the silo was almost empty but said she did not know how big it was.

A Fire and Emergency spokesman said fire attended to help with first aid and to get the man out.

He had fallen 15 metres into the silo, but was injured rather than stuck, the spokesman said.

‘‘They are very dangerous things those grain silos,’’ he said.

Three crews from Balclutha Fire Station attended and were at the scene for about an hour.

It was ‘‘a tricky extraction’’ to get the man out, the spokesman said.

They removed him from the side of the silo rather than the top. It was unknown whether the silo had to be cut.

A spokeswoman for Worksafe said: ‘‘WorkSafe have been notified of an incident in Balclutha where a man has fallen into a grain silo. We are making some initial inquiries to determine our next steps.’’

The Worksafe investigation could take up to a year.

Information on the Worksafe website says silos present several risks that must be managed appropriately.

‘‘Entering into silos, either from the ground or the top, presents a significant risk to workers.

‘‘Workers can easily be engulfed by bulk materials such as grain, sand, flour, fertiliser and sawdust. Bulk materials are not solid and there are often unstable areas (voids) that may collapse under the weight of a worker. This can cause a worker to become trapped or buried in the silo.’’

In 2016, a man was working in a silo on a farm on Nine Mile Rd, near Riversdale, when he became buried in grain up to his chest.

He received oxygen from firefighters while he was rescued, and was flown to Dunedin Hospital in a serious condition.

Mark and Sonia Dillon, who operate as the Dillon Partnership and farm a property near Riversdale where the electrician was trapped in a grain silo, were fined $69,000 in a prosecution brought by Worksafe NZ in 2017.

Riversdale Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer David Stevenson worked on retrieving the man in 2016.

Working on the case, firefighters learnt a lot about the dangers of grain silos, he said.

When asked if he was surprised another incident had occurred on Thursday, he said the circumstances for each case would be different so he could not comment.

It also depended on the type of grain whether or not someone would sink – if it was a shiny grain they could slip in but a rougher grain they may not, he said.

After the incident an investigation on grain silo dangers was conducted with hopes of creating a training module for firefighters.