How a Dramatic Grain Bin Rescue in Rural Minnesota Sparked An Idea For R3, a First of Its Kind Rescue Tool

Through a series of Beck's Day Ever videos, Beck's Hybrids is raising awareness about grain bin entrapments by sharing stories of survival and hope. 

In 2019, in Minnesota, fire and rescue departments dealt with 12 grain bin entrapments, 11 of them ending in loss of life. One of those entrapments occurred on a farm near the small town of Gibbon. 

On Oct. 8, 2019, local farmer Jerry Schwarzrock was entrapped in his grain bin. His sons were the ones who found him.                 

“We've always helped my dad farm. On that day, the augers were running at the farm, figured corn was transferring, but I didn't see my dad's truck, so we thought that maybe he went to town and left it,” says Paul Schwarzrock, Jerry’s son. “We came back out and heard that the augers were running empty. And I'm like, ‘Something's going on.’ And all of a sudden I heard light helps—'help, help.’ We ran up the bin and there he was. And the corn was up to his neck with just his head was sticking out. And I called 911.”

“The page came across with an address and that there was an individual trapped in his grain bin,” says Nate Firle, Gibbon Fire and Rescue Volunteer and Regional Agronomy manager for Becks Hybrids. “I knew the address, like many rural fire departments, you pretty much know who you're going to help. So, the worst did strike my mind, obviously, because, it's not very often there's a successful rescue from a grain bin entrapment.”

“We arrived on scene and I immediately climbed up to the top of the bin to see what was needed. And then I saw Dana in there working on Jerry,” says Jason Redig, Assistant Chief, Gibbon Fire and Rescue

“They wanted me inside that bin and next to him and do patient care,” says Dana Lietzau, EMT, Gibbon Fire and Rescue. “He was pretty much chest on down. We were just trying to dig him out to start with. We put on oxygen right away. That dust in the bin got pretty out of control and I just told him, you have to keep talking to us. I don't know your state of mind or where you're at, but as long as you keep talking to me, I know that you're with us.”

People on the scene describe it as a nonstop rollercoaster for two couple hours. 

“Your mind is just spinning. We were cutting holes. We were making sure everything's off,” says Lietzau. 

Firle says there was so much grain on the opposite side of that grain bin that the grain continued to flow down toward them like an avalanche.  
                 
“There was a couple times that we had to stop and just say, ‘We're not winning, what are we going to do?’”

“I remember him looking at me saying, ‘My foot is in the auger.’ And that was probably the most helpless feeling,” says Firle. “We knew right then and there that we had a lot of grain to move to get to the point where we could work on detangling him from that.”  
                 
Then, the rescuers had an idea: try to use a grain vac to help get the grain out. 

“I gave a good buddy of mine a call and said, ‘We need your grain vac. Bring it over to Jerry's,’” says Redig.  
             
“That grain vac was the key in working right around the victim. It was so fast. It sped that process up by easily 30 if not 45 minutes,” adds Firle. 

An Idea for R3- Rural Rescue Response 
                                    
With help from God, the first responders and the community, Jerry’s life was saved. Due to this harrowing experience, and the high percentage of entrapment fatalities, Gibbon Fire and Rescue realized they needed a grain vac of their own—and a means of transporting it quickly to a scene. They called the project “R3”—Rural Rescue Response. 
                    
“The machinery is getting larger. The bin storage, the farms are getting larger. Rescue squads, fire departments need to grow with that,” says Kurt Burns, a Gibbon, Minn.  resident   

“During the rescue, t basically went from us wanting to get a grain vac to help with grain bin rescues to, okay, we need some storage, and if we're going to have storage, why don't we use this storage for other types of rural rescues, from tractor rollover to somebody caught in a piece of equipment, says Redig. 
                    
Firle says from discovering what would have been great tools to have on hand, that’s how R3 was born. 
                    
“We put our visions on some papers and some drawings,” says Redig. 

"I made a little sketch on my computer just using Publisher with shapes and really kind of a cheesy initial model, but it did the work of painting the vision. And finding somebody to build it, and getting those quotes, getting the dollars so that we could then go to fundraising,” adds Firle. 

The department turned to their community raise the funds to build the trailer. 

“Our target was $105,000 total, but $55,000 was going to trigger the order of this thing. And we hit that within three months,” Firle says. 
                         
Having placed the order, the community continued to raise funds for tools and equipment to handle a variety of rural rescues. In March of 2023, they were notified that the R3 was ready for pickup. 

Later in March, the Gibbon community gathered at the fire house to officially celebrate their achievement with an in-service dedication. Fire and rescue teams from nearby communities were also invited to see the new R3 that would be available to help save lives.              
                    
“This is going to draw a lot of attention to area farmers knowing there's a grain vac available if this should ever happen again,” says Myron Schwarzrock. “Let's hope we don't have to use it.”                    

“Our goal is that any department that needs one can have one. And so, we're not done here,” adds Lietzau.
             
“This is a first of its kind, to our knowledge today. Nobody has built a custom trailer that has a vac mounted to it for the grain bin entrapments, and the storage capacity to hold all of those tools for rural rescues. But I don't want it to be one of a kind. I want it to be the first of its kind,” says Firle. 

 Beck’s Hybrids supported Gibbon’s R3 project and is dedicating this season of Beck’s Day Ever to exploring the stories of rural rescuers who protect and serve their communities saying a true Beck’s Day Ever is one where everyone gets home safe. 

If you know a local fire and rescue department interested in a R3 trailer, they can do so through a quick and easy grant process, one designed to get the necessary equipment to as many fire departments as possible.