Members of the Lisbon Fire Department were honored for their lifesaving work in the Feb. 18 grain bin incident.
Mount Vernon-Lisbon police chief Doug Shannon recounted the narrative timeline of the incident, similar to what was presented at Mount Vernon’s lifesaving awards ceremony three weeks earlier.
Volunteer firefighters recognized from Lisbon include Brandon Siggins, David Herboldsheimer, Jason Blinks, Kevin Steele, Taylor Patten, Jake Siggins, Brett Epperly, Rod Kelley and Tyler Smith.
Ryan Stoneking, Lisbon public works employee, and Jones County deputies Tim Smith and Dan Jacobs were also recognized, but were not in attendance.
“We’re lucky to live where we do,” said Brandon Siggins, Lisbon fire chief. “To have that many people respond to the call on a Friday morning was a huge deal.”
Allan Mallie, one of those rescued, noted that the thinking of the fire department to relieve the grain pressure in the bin on the opposing side probably made the rescue a huge success.
“If the firemen didn’t know what they were doing and made cuts to the other side of the bin to equalize the weight, this bin could have had all that grain on one side and caused it to topple and have all the corn product on the rescuers and everything,” Mallie said.
Jared Youngblut, the man who was rescued from the grain last, again spoke about how grateful he was to the volunteers who saved his life that day.
Shaun Lambertsen, whose grain was in the bin, also expressed his gratitude.
“The thing that I still remember is how very little grain it takes to make a very, very big problem for those of us,” Lambertsen said.
He also said he would be forever grateful for the couple from Nebraska who had taken a detour to go get coffee, which took them near to provide some assistance between the 911 call and first responders’ arrival.
Lambertsen said he and farmers in the area were making donations to the departments that helped in the rescue, with the goal of helping the departments purchase more rescue equipment. He also had a list of a number of other individuals, not first responder, who helped with additional clean-up in the weeks after the bin rupture.