Baralaba emergency services receive Everyday Hero Award for silo rescue

Heart-stopping footage of the moment rescuers jumped into action to stop a trapped Queensland farmer from being swallowed by a grain silo has emerged as a trio of heroes is honoured. VIDEO.

A trio of police and ambulance officers who saved a man’s life have been honoured for going “above and beyond the call of duty” when they rescued a farmer who became trapped in a grain silo.

Baralaba Police Station Officer in Charge Sergeant Wylie Steel, Constable Callam Moriarty and Baralaba Ambulance Station Officer in Charge Vaughan Mason received a QBANK Everyday Heroes Award in the Working Together category for saving farmer John Lawson, who became trapped up to his head in grain in a silo on a property on the Moura Baralaba Rd about 5km out of town, just after midday on February 23.

Incredible body-worn camera vision captured by the officers shows the men trying to free John and encourage him on inside the mangled silo that had to be cut so grain could drain out.

Sgt Steel is heard calling for more shovels to push the grain away from John’s nose and mouth to help him breathe, with only the top of the farmer’s head visible at one point.

Not all heroes wear capes 🦸

When a farmer fell into his silo, the Rockhampton community rallied to rescue him.

Yesterday, two officers were officially named @QBANK_au Everyday Heroes for going above and beyond💙
https://t.co/Bkt7BzEyrhpic.twitter.com/YWcWMAS2SH

— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) October 27, 2023

It also shows how the community rallied to physically help the officers pull John out of the silo, with a young man in a suit joining the multitude of locals who arrived to save John’s life.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Sgt Steel can be heard urging John and everyone on.

After receiving the award, Const Moriarty expressed his happiness he could still talk to John and said the way the community responded was unlike it would have been in larger areas, with people shutting down their businesses to help and someone arriving on a tractor.

Speaking to The Morning Bulletin on October 27, Mr Lawson said he was “thankful to the fellows” involved in his daring rescue.

“The two police officers and the ambulance bloke went above and beyond the call of duty,” he said.

OIC at Baralaba Ambulance Station Vaughan Mason, Constable Callam Moriarty and OIC at Baralaba Police Station Sergeant Wylie Steel. Picture: Aden Stokes

Looking back on the incident, Mr Lawson said he was “concerned about keeping on breathing and keeping his head above the grain”.

“It virtually got up to my chin and my mouth,” he said.

“When the two police officers and the ambulance bloke climbed into the silo, they kept the grain away from me.

“It was virtually impossible to pull me out of the grain because the way the grain had gone down out to the auger at the bottom, it made the grain around me really tight.”

Baralaba farmer John Lawson in hospital after his close call stuck in a silo.

With the assistance of the community, he said four holes were cut in the silo and a big percentage was drained to get him out.

Mr Lawson said he had been in silos hundreds of times before and had always gone barefoot, but on this occasion he was wearing work boots.

“This day I got stuck in the silo I got in with my work boots on and I just couldn’t walk out of the grain because it was being augured out of the bottom of the silo,” he said.

“The grain wasn’t coming out as well as it should have.

The silo Baralaba farmer John Lawson was trapped in. Picture: Contributed

“It had a cavity in the grain and when I got in there and gave it a poke the grain collapsed.

“I went down probably a metre in the grain and because the auger was taking the grain away at the bottom, I was deeper and deeper in the grain. The grain was probably only 3m deep.

“The thing that saved me was when the bloke turned the auger engine off he could hear I was singing out so he called Triple-0.

“The police and ambulance fellow did a fantastic job getting on the scene and getting things going.”

OIC at Baralaba Ambulance Station Vaughan Mason, OIC at Baralaba Police Station Sergeant Wylie Steel and Constable Callam Moriarty accepting their QBANK Everyday Heroes Award.

Upon accepting their award at the annual awards dinner at the W Hotel Brisbane on October 27, Mr Mason commented on the way the town came together to help Mr Lawson, saying, “we went into the silo with three people, by the time we came out there was 30 odd people there”.

“Everyone put differences aside and we all came together and achieved the task we had to,” he said.

“We are very proud of our fellow comrades we work with and our community.

“We are each other’s eyes, we are each other’s back and we listen to each other as well.

“We are just so humbled and proud of our area. We really are.”

Winners were selected by a panel of highly respected judges and received $2000 and an additional $2000 donated to a charity of their choice.