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Man survives cave-in

Hillsboro ambulance, fire, and EMT crews were called out at 11:12 a.m. Friday morning to a job site five miles south of Hillsboro on Indigo Road. Approximately 20 emergency crew members, including Marion Rescue and Marion County Sheriff's department, assisted in the rescue.

Tobias Fiefers, 19-year-old employee of Venture Corporation, Great Bend, went into a hopper of sand to remove some mud when the sand caved in and trapped him. The chute at the bottom of the hopper was opened and a hole cut in one side of the hopper. Emergency crew workers dug the sand out of the hopper by hand.

Eagle Med helicopter from Wichita with a crew of three landed on Indigo at 11:45. By that time Fiefers, whose entire body was covered by sand at times, was free except for his legs which were stuck in the chute. After the Eagle Med crew determined that Fiefers was physically OK and his legs were extricated, he walked up a ladder, out of the hopper, and into a front-end loader. An Eagle Med worker and two Hillsboro firefighters assisted him.

By 12:22 p.m. Fiefers was transported to Hillsboro Community Medical Center where he was treated and released.

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