Posted: 7/13/04
Grain bin accident claims life of Spring Grove man
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
A farm accident claimed the life of Donald Alan Van Minsel, 41, on the afternoon of Thursday, July 8.
The rural Spring Grove man suffocated in a grain bin on the Ron Myhre farm in section two of Wilmington Township.
It occurred at about 3:40 p.m. after he descended into the grain bin from the top to loosen corn that was not sliding properly. He and three other men were moving corn in the 30,000-bushel bin.
The bin was not being unloaded at the time of the accident, Houston County Chief Deputy Ken Frank said.
ìApparently he was going to try to kick the corn loose,î Frank said. Van Minsel usually did that with a pole, but this time he may have stepped off the ladder to kick at it, Frank said.
ìIt seems to fit a classic case or scenario known as corn drowning,î Frank said.
After Van Minsel was noticed to be missing, farm workers called 9-1-1 and tried to get at him from above. They were not able to do so, Frank said.
They and rescue workers tried from the bottom too, both through a door in the huge bin and through several holes that Caledonia Fire Department members cut in order to drain the corn out faster.
Attempts to revive Van Minsel after they found him failed.
Many local farmers responded to the scene on the western edge of the Myhre farm, driving up their grain trucks to be filled through vacuum hoses so that rescuers could get the corn out of the way.
Police officers from the county and city of Caledonia, and paramedics from Caledonia Ambulance Service and Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, stood by in case they were needed. The Med Link helicopter from Gundersen Lutheran sat in a field of alfalfa 50 yards away.
Van Minsel was pronounced dead at the scene by Houston County Deputy Coroner Cindy Wright.
It was a tough job for the rescue workers, Frank said.
Van Minsel, the son of Leo and Elaine Van Minsel, had been an employee at the farm for about 12 years. He was a 1981 Spring Grove High School graduate.
An obituary can be found on page seven.
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