Teamwork saves Malden farmer's life

While rescue workers continued digging inside a grain bin to rescue Dennis Flowers, emergency personnel had their eye on the incoming Air Evac helicopter which, as the drama unfolded, wasn't needed after all. [Click to enlarge]

Teamwork and courage came into play Wednesday afternoon as a dozen volunteers and emergency personnel strived to rescue a rural Malden farmer from a grain bin.

The drama began late Wednesday, Jan. 18, on the Flowers farm when Dennis Flowers, his son Dennis Jr. and Matt and Jerry Sparks began removing soybeans from a grain bin adjacent to J Highway, about one and one-half miles west of Malden.

According to Gary Beckham, Malden fireman and one of the first on the scene, the senior Flowers insisted on going up to check on the level of beans in the bin and fell in. When his son went to check on him, he found him in the bin up to his chin in soybeans. Before Flowers could be sucked further down and into the auger, the younger Flowers and the Sparks father and son shut down the auger and tried to help Flowers out but to no avail. At that point, even though his father told him not to call for help, 9-1-1 was called, said Beckham. The report was received at the Malden Police Station and directed to the Malden Fire Department around 12:10 p.m., according to fire department records.

Beckham reported eight firemen and rescue team members and the department's pumper and rescue truck responded to the scene. In addition, two Medic One ambulances, an Air Evac helicopter and Dunklin County Deputy Sheriff Randall Midkiff also were on hand.

Even before that help arrived, however, off-duty Dunklin County Deputy William Hill, who happened to be driving by, was recognized and flagged down by Flowers, Jr. As described later by Malden Fireman Jimmy Phelps, who also was among the first to arrive on the scene, he and Hill entered the bin, spreading themselves flat so as to not to get trapped themselves. Their priority was to keep the beans, which created about a six foot shelf around Flowers, from falling down and smothering him.

"It was touch and go," Phelps recalled. "If any beans had rolled down he could have smothered." Even just getting beans in his mouth would have been dangerous as, once the beans were in Flowers' mouth, they would have absorbed moisture and swelled, cutting off Flowers' ability to breathe, Phelps added.

According to Phelps, the bin was about half full when the incident occurred. The auger would have removed the beans but also would have further jeopardized Flowers' life as the action of the machine would have sucked Flowers further down. It was up to Hill and Phelps to keep the beans away from Flowers until those working at the bottom of the bin could shovel out enough beans to get him out. Phelps said his, Hill's and Shawn Summers' (who was among those working at the bottom of the bin) jackets were tucked around Flowers to help protect him from the beans.

"We tried to keep him (Flowers) talking the whole time," said Phelps, "not only to distract him but it also helped him breathe."

Meanwhile, at the bottom, Beckham, Jerry Smart and others had cut a second hole in the bin to speed removal.

"It took a lot of digging," said Phelps.

Once enough beans had been removed, the auger, which runs across the bottom of the bin, was disconnected and removal of the outside beans into the waiting grain truck began.

"That was the trick--getting the beans out without him going further down," said Beckham.

"When an auger's running, it pulls toward the middle and whatever's inside gets pulled down," he said.

About an hour after the drama began, Dennis Flowers, with some support from his rescuers, came safely out of the bin and walked to a waiting ambulance to be checked out by emergency personnel.