Looking Back: Teenager survives after being pinned under tractor; man reported missing at work

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of June 8 to June 14 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

BURLEY — A tank with 8,000 gallons of gasoline and a motor truck were destroyed in a fire, the South Idaho Press reported on June 8, 1920.

The incident happened in Burley. At the time the fire ignited, V.L. Bunnell was filling the tank on a motor truck. His truck engine was not running.

The explosion happened inside the truck tank while the gasoline was being drawn from the big tank. Bunnell was “stunned” by the explosion.

“A terrific explosion was avoided only by the ease with which the valve was blown off and the binding seams of the tank forced,” the article reads.

The fire department arrived soon after the blaze started but were unable to do anything to stop the fire. However, they helped prevent it from spreading.

“The loss is a severe one to the service station proprietors but the city of Burley was fortunate in that there was no heavy explosion and that there was practically no wind at the time of the fire,” the paper stated. “Either one may have caused great loss as the tanks are located dangerously near the residential and business sections, and there was practically no pressure in the city water system when the fire started.”

It’s not clear why the fire started. The loss from the fire was estimated at $7,000 to $8,000.

1926-1950

ST. ANTHONY — Two Fremont County residents drowned in a boating tragedy in Island Park, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on June 10, 1940.

Edward J. Hansen, 24, and Clement Hurst, 23, drowned after their boat capsized Sunday afternoon. Hansen’s body was found about six hours after the tragedy at 8 p.m. and Hurst’s body was recovered Monday at 11 a.m. Both men were from St. Anthony.

The accident happened about 100 yards offshore about a quarter of a mile below McCrae Bridge.

Three witnesses on the shore — Dr. P.S. Evans, E.F. Lundgren and Bill Kenney, all of St. Anthony — rushed to help those who’d been in the boat. They took a rowboat and got several people out of the water who had been with Hansen and Hurst. Some of them managed to swim to the shore.

Those on the boat included Reed Coffin, of St. Anthony, Fred Shirley, Althea Thomas and Maurine Leljenquist, all of Rexburg, Letha Wilmore, of Hibbard, and Jack Barney, also of St. Anthony.

Coffin, the owner and operator of the boat, told officers he was fishing when members of the party “hailed him from shore” and asked him to row them across the lake.

Coffin agreed and was about 100 yards off shore when, he said, several members of the group began to rock the boat, causing it to flip over.

Coffin said he tried to help Hurst but Hurst started to panic “making a rescue attempt impossible.”

Hurst had been working at a sawmill in the Island Park district when he died.

Hansen was born in Ashton but moved to St. Anthony with his parents in 1917. He graduated from St. Anthony High School in 1936 and had been employed by the C.W. and M. Company.

1951-1975

IDAHO FALLS — A 17-year-old Idaho Falls teenager miraculously survived after being pinned under a tractor for an hour-and-a-half, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on June 12, 1957.

Richard Haderlie was driving a tractor and bringing in cows from the field on his family’s farm on Ririe Road when the incident happened. He reportedly took too sharp of a turn in the tractor while guiding the cattle and the machine overturned on him. He got pinned beneath the seat and the steering wheel.

Haderlie laid under the weight of the tractor for almost two hours, unnoticed. He worked to dig himself free with a small wrench he had been carrying in his pocket. He was able to remove the seat from the tractor and continue digging around his pinned body.

Haderlie eventually freed himself but wasn’t able to walk to his house to get help.

“As a matter of chance, an uncle was driving along the Ririe Road and ‘got the feeling’ he should stop at the Haderlie home,” the paper reads. “It was then he saw his nephew alternately standing and collapsing in the field.”

Haderlie was taken inside his house and then to the hospital. The doctor said Haderlie did not appear to be in serious condition but the full extent of his injuries hadn’t been determined.

The teen told his father the rim of the steering wheel barely missed his throat when the machine crashed down on him. The incident happened around 6 p.m. and he was admitted to the hospital about 8 p.m.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A J.R. Simplot Company official identified a man who had been reported missing at the Pocatello fertilizer plant, the Idaho State Journal reported on June 14, 1977.

Don B. McShane had been missing since a shift change the previous Friday but the company declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the man’s disappearance.

On June 14, 1977, the Journal received a letter, apparently from someone who either worked at the plant or was familiar with its operation, claiming that a “travesty” is being made of the investigation.

The anonymous writer suggested the missing man, who was reportedly an electrician, may have fallen into a vat of phosphoric acid. The letter states the man’s hard hat and tools were found lying on the floor, and that the presence of a ladder and light bulbs indicated the man may have been changing lights.

McShane didn’t punch out that Friday night from work and his personal belongings were still in his locker, according to the letter. The man’s truck was also still in the parking lot.

“There are many holes that lead to large uncovered acid tanks on the floor of the phosphoric acid plant where it seems he was last working,” the letter states. “The company drained the tank closest to where his hat and tools were.”

The writer also said the other vats in the area should be drained.

Stephen Beebe, a Simplot attorney, said an “acid vat has been drained and completely cleaned, and there’s absolutely no sign of him.”

Beebe confirmed personal items were found where McShane was believed to be working and in his locker.

“While we can’t be 100% sure he is not on the premises, we have concluded that the probabilities are that he is not,” Beebe stated.

He mentioned the investigation had been turned over to Power and Bannock County authorities.

Power County coroner Bud Kelley said a chemist took part in the investigation.

“What his findings were, I don’t know,” Kelley said. “As far as I’m concerned, all we have is a missing person.”

Another Simplot official, who declined to be identified, said the plant has been checked over eight times in an effort to locate McShane but with no results. He said searchers “looked into the other acid tank” without finding any clues.

The official said only one tank was drained because other tanks are “sealed off” in such a way that it would be impossible for a man to get in them. He did say that Power County Sheriff Howard Sprague had “good reason” to believe the missing man had left the area. Sprague could not be reached for comment.

A Power County sheriff’s dispatcher said the missing man’s parents had not been notified of their son’s disappearance yet. The parents reportedly lived out-of-state.