WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas man has suffered severe electrical shocks while helping to harvest a soybean field.

The Salina Journal reports that 24-year-old Zachary Short was flown to a Wichita hospital Saturday with critical injuries.

Saline County Sheriff’s deputy Chad Flesher said that after cutting a soybean field, an auger boom that would have transferred the soybeans into a semi came in contact with power lines. The current caused sparks, and Short grabbed a fire extinguisher.

Flesher says Short was vaulting over the hitch between the tractor and grain cart when he was thrown backward. Short collapsed against the frame of the grain cart. One of the other men helping with the harvest found a plastic shovel and was able to move Short away from the electric current.

 

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SALINA- Two men received electrical burns and one was hospitalized after a harvest accident on Saturday afternoon in rural Saline County.

Saline County Rural Fire District Chief Jim Preston said the accident occurred when a harvest crew unloading grain discovered a tire on fire in a field near Ohio Street and East Farrelly Road.

In an effort to help put the fire out, one man came in contact with machinery that was also touching power lines.

He was transported to Salina Regional Medical Center and then transported to Wichita for treatment of severe burns. The other worker was not seriously injured.

Fire crews had to let the machinery burn while waiting for Westar Energy crews to disconnect power. The farm equipment was destroyed.