ALBERT LEA – Travis Wasmoen is lucky to be alive.

Thursday, February 03, 2000

ALBERT LEA – Travis Wasmoen is lucky to be alive. While working on his father’s farm southwest of Albert Lea, the 25-year-old became trapped in a corn silo and was buried up to his chin in grain.

Thomas Wasmoen, Travis’ father, operates a farmstead in Pickeral Lake Township on the southern edge of Pickeral Lake. At noon Wednesday, the men were working in the silo emptying the corn from the silo into a semi-trailer outside. Using a grain vacuum hose, Travis was inside the silo transferring the grain. Then, the corn beneath him gave way suddenly, and the sucking action of the vacuum hose and the quickly receding corn pulled Wasmoen into the bin.

The vacuum hose continued to work for an undetermined amount of time, and then broke. Wasmoen was quickly buried up to his chin in grain, unable to move or climb out. His father was outside, unable to hear his son call for help above the din of the machinery.

Unaware of what was happening to his son, but alert, Tom noticed that the corn no longer was being poured into the semi from the silo. He climbed the narrow ladder of the silo to check on his son – and found Travis where he lay trapped.

The Conger First Responders were quickly notified as well the Minnesota State Patrol and the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Department. An ambulance also was dispatched from Albert Lea Medical Center. Rescue workers arrived at the scene at 12:05 p.m.

Family members gathered at the foot of the grain bin and waited expectantly as rescuers worked to free the trapped farmer. After an hour of carefully sifting through the grain, the rescue workers were able to free Wasmoen, who was able to descend the ladder on his own.

Wasmoen credited the vacuum hose, which broke during the ordeal, for his survival.

"It was lucky for me that the hose broke, or it would’ve kept pumping out the grain beneath me," Wasmoen said with a nervous laugh. "I’d have been sucked down deeper and buried."

The grain covered the farmer from the neck down, weighing his arms down to his sides; the weight of the grain restricted his ability to breathe or call out, Wasmoen said.

Deputies and ambulance crew members worked together, vacuuming small quantities of grain from the bin, being careful not to cause another cave in that would cause the trapped man to fall in farther, a Freeborn County sheriff’s deputy at the scene said.