CASTLETON TOWNSHIP (WKZO AM/FM) — Barry County Officials have released the name of a farmer who suffocated when he was swallowed up by a corn silo near Vermontville.
Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Gould says 72-year-old Robert Othmer was in the silo Thursday morning when he sank into the corn at his farm on Coats Grove Road, while family members were unloading the corn below.
Othmer was wearing a safety harness but it failed.
Gould says they had to cut holes in the bottom of the silo to try and rescue him, because they have dealt with these kinds of rescues before.
He adds that firefighters risk sinking into the corn too if they go in from the top.
By the time they got to Othmer, it was too late.
(copy written by John McNeill)
