A Henryville, Tennessee, farmer escaped an unscathed grain bin this week after first responders were able to get him free. The farmer had been stuck up to his neck before the rescue.

The man fell into the grain bin sometime before 2:12 p.m. local time Wednesday, when several local volunteer fire departments and other first responders were called to the scene. 

By the time they arrived, the man was towards the center of the bin and 90% buried in corn kernels, the Etheridge Fire Department said in a release.

Being stuck in grain is like being stuck in quicksand.

“It’s a force that pulls you down and collapses down on top of you at the same time and puts an immense amount of pressure on your body,” Tyler McDow with Lawrence County Fire & Rescue told WTVF-TV.

Mr. McDow added that the farmer had sunk to the point that the corn was just below his mouth by the time the rescue began. Another couple of inches would have suffocated the unnamed man to death. 

Rescuers used something called a “Great Wall device” to save the man, hammering it in around where he was trapped to separate him from the full mass of the corn. 

Afterward, a vacuum was used to remove the corn still encasing the man, ultimately allowing him to leave unharmed through an emergency access door at the bottom of the structure. By 4:20 p.m. local time, the man was out, awake, alert and uninjured, Lawrence County Fire & Rescue posted on Facebook.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.