Earlier this month, a Michigan woman went missing after being injured in a car crash. According to the Associated Press, the woman was found two days later in a dense cornfield.
Unfortunately, this kind of rescue happens more than you think, said Ralph Kuchenbrod of the Illinois Fire Service. He shares how he goes about a cornfield rescue.
“Well first thing, most important, is to talk to the reporting person, the person who initially called 9-1-1 to get an idea of where the person went in,” said Kuchenbrod. “Then get as much information as you can about that particular person. Is it a child? Does the child have any sort of cognitive issues? And physically, what kind of condition they are in. So if the lady is 87 years old and pretty frail, you are going to have an idea that she probably not going to go very far. That’s sort of the initial information you want to gather before we actually send people into the field to look.”
Corn fields are privately owned so Kuchenbrod says it’s important to talk with the field owners before initiating a search.
Check out Kailey Forster’s interview with Ralph Kuchenbrod as they discuss cornfield rescue missions: