INDIANAPOLIS – A worker for a grain storage and processing company was dead when pulled from a silo containing 25,000 bushels of soybeans.

The body of Marvin Tyler, 32, was found about four feet from the bottom of the 112-foot silo at Bunge Contractors in Indianapolis. Bunge Contractors stores and crushes the soybeans to extract the oil.

It took 10 hours with help from multiple departments to recover Tyler’s body on Sept. 11. The efforts were hampered as the soybeans caved in whenever progress was made to stabilize the material and reach the victim.

“Rescuers reported that every time progress was made in removing it from around the victim, it would slide back down and put them back to square one,” Indianapolis Fire Department officials said. IFD officials said his position on a slope near a wall added to the difficulty of reaching him.

Tyler was employed by the company for two years.

A dozen rescuers fastened to a high angle rope system inside the silo began constructing a work platform out of boards. Grain kits were also used to try to stabilize the victim’s position in the soybeans. However, the grain kept shifting and every time caved in on what they had just built, IFD officials said.

Eventually, their repeated efforts to stabilize the man took hold and a vacuum truck was used to remove the soybeans from around him. Rescuers were then able to remove the body from the silo.

“Our thoughts are with the family as they grieve the unexpected loss of their loved one,” IFD officials said.

Bill Field, a farm safety expert at Purdue University, said grain silo entrapments are usually fatal.

Death, if completely buried, can occur quickly from suffocation or hours later when being partially buried from the pressure of the grain triggers a heart attack or some other medical condition, he said.

Field said survivors have had respirators on and did other things such as covering their faces to keep the grain and dust from plugging their airways.

He said many of the accidents stem from grain being too wet during storage and sticking to the inside walls of a silo. Chunks from the moisture can later form and clog the flow of grain being drawn out by an auger.

Someone then has to go inside and break up the clumps of corn or soybeans. Occasionally, grain being chipped from a wall with a long stick or pole falls in the form of a large sheet or block on the person below.

Field said grain stuck to a wall should always be removed from above to keep from getting buried.

Augers should also be shut off before going inside at the top of the silo and stepping onto the grain below to keep from being sucked deep into the material, he said.

Field said safety harnesses fastened to ropes or cables should also be worn to remain above the grain or pull yourself out in the event of a mishap.