Rescuers detail life-saving operation to free worker from grain silo

In short:

A man in his 60s was rescued after becoming trapped in a silo at a GrainCorp facility in Dunolly in central Victoria last week.

Rescuers say they used metal barricades to free the man, who was flown to hospital for observation and released the next day.

What's next?

A WorkSafe investigation remains ongoing.

A man who became trapped in a grain silo in central Victoria last week is lucky to be alive, according to rescuers involved in the operation to free him.

The man, aged in his 60s, was freed following an hours-long multi-agency rescue at GrainCorp's Dunolly facility last Tuesday.

Emergency services were called to the facility on Thompson St at about 3.30pm after workers had unsuccessfully attempted to free the man themselves.

The Country Fire Authority's (CFA) Bendigo-based specialised rescue team, Oscar One Technical Rescue Brigade, was called to the scene to assist the operation.

Oscar One brigade captain Karl Shay said he believed the operation had potentially saved the man's life.

"He was quite distressed," he said.

"He was in a lot of pain because the grain was pushing his leg onto a bracket, which was coming off an auger which runs through the bottom of the silo."

Mr Shay said crews had to develop a plan to free the man without causing more grain to collapse around him.

"Once you take a handful out and remove it, any higher grain obviously comes down and replaces that," he said.

“The idea is, you build a wall around them, and then you extract the grain out from within the wall around the casualty enough that you can free them."

Crew trains for silo incidents

Images of the rescue appear to show a makeshift barrier built around the man using pieces of corrugated iron and road signs.

Mr Shay said while silo rescues were uncommon, the specialist brigade regularly trained for grain entrapment incidents.

The CFA said the silo was only about 10 per cent full at the time and the worker was trapped above his knee.

Crews from Dunolly, Maryborough and Bealiba attended alongside the Oscar One specialist rescue unit, Fire Rescue Victoria, Victoria Police, the SES and Ambulance Victoria.

CFA commander Hugh Kelly said in a statement the successful operation demonstrated the importance of cooperation between emergency services.

"Everyone worked really well together," he said.

"These are complex incidents, so it was really amazing that we were able to achieve such a positive outcome."

The incident was declared safe at 7:08pm, with the man flown to Bendigo Health. He was released the next day.

GrainCorp has been contacted for comment.

A WorkSafe investigation into the incident remains ongoing.