Staff photo by Fritz Busch Rural Sleepy Eye farmer Robert Nelson was rescued Tuesday from a grain bin. He was transported to Sleepy Eye Medical Center, later released and returned home Tuesday afternoon.

SLEEPY EYE — The Sleepy Eye Fire Department rescued a man from a grain bin at a farm on CR 27 three miles west of Sleepy Eye late Tuesday morning.

Sleepy Eye Fire Chief Ron Zinniel said the call came in from 30553 CR 27, Prairieville Township at 11:25 a.m. Tuesday. Robert Nelson was trapped in a grain bin.

“He was pretty well buried above his shoulders when we got there,” Zinniel said. “With the help of the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Sleepy Eye Ambulance and ourselves, we dug him out of the grain bin. It took about an hour.”

Zinniel said grain bin rescue equipment including a silo tube was used to get Nelson out of the grain bin.

“First we secured him in the bin,” said Zinniel. “We used a miniature grain auger that attaches to a drill to auger the corn away from him. I’d like to thank the companies that donated the silo rescue equipment. Without that, we wouldn’t have been as effective as we were.”

Nelson was taken to Sleepy Eye Medical Center as a precautionary measure. He was released a short while later and was back working on the farm Tuesday afternoon.

“He was lucky. He’s doing pretty good now,” Nelson’s wife, Verena, said late Tuesday afternoon.

Assisting at the scene were the Minnesota State Patrol, Sleepy Eye Police and Central Region Cooperative.

(Fritz Busch can emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.)