Press Release by Adair County Emergency Management Agency and Interview of Grant Loy, Adair County Emergency Management / Adair County SAR Coordinator Brandon Harvey.
On 12/29/2024 at approximately 15:08 hours Adair County E911 Center was notified of an abandoned vehicle in the area of 252 Pelston Cemetery Road in the Breeding Community of Adair County. Adair County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene and started to gather information, it was deemed that the driver of this vehicle, Mr. Thomas Burden, age 74 of Illinois, had abandoned his vehicle, walked away and was possibly injured and lost.
At approximately 16:26 hours Breeding Fire Department Chief Terry Harvey was notified of the incident by the landowner.
At approximately 16:44 hours Adair County Emergency Management was notified and responded to the scene. Search Teams from the Breeding Fire Department had already initiated a hasty search of the area. Due to adverse weather conditions, the search was suspended twice. The search area consisted of fields, wooded areas and waterways. “ The search area was very remote and treacherous, we suspended the search out of safety concerns for our rescuers”. “ It was raining heavily, hailing, lightening with winds gusting up to 40 miles per hour” Says Brandon Harvey, Adair County SAR Coordinator / Breeding FD Captain.
“Throughout the night, we were planning 1, 2, 6 and 12 hours in advance” says Grant Loy, Adair County Emergency Management Director. We had a plan and who to call for assistance. We had ground teams from Breeding FD, Canine Search of Kentucky and Cumberland County Rescue Squad searching, continues Loy. “Adair County EMS Paramedic Preston Gaskin, owner of Fly High Aerial Drone Photography offered assistance with his thermal drone. Preston searched with his drone for approximately an hour.”
Campbellsville Fire Rescue responded to the scene with additional manpower and a Drone Team. At approximately 22:16 hours, Chief Chris Taylor was able to locate the male, approximately 1300 feet from Mr. Burden’s vehicle using a Thermal Drone. Mr. Burden was located in a nearby field, he was awake and oriented, suffering from hypothermia. Adair County E.M.S. was dispatched, the male was transported to T.J. Samson Columbia.
“We are very fortunate of this outcome” Says Loy. “Not all searches end with a save. We faced many different challenges that night. We had very little information to go off of. We were following every clue we found. We had personnel calling Mr Burden’s neighbors in Illinois, we had personnel performing internet searches of family members and posting updates on Social Media.” This incident is a great reminder, “If you see something, say something” We are lucky that the property owners saw the abandoned vehicle and called 911!
Adair County Emergency Management would like to thank all search members from last night’s efforts, along with Adair County E911 Center for extensive investigative efforts and ensuring all responders were safe during this incident.
There were 32 search members on scene for approximately 6.5 hours.
Agencies that were involved in this search:
- Adair County Emergency Management
- Breeding Area Volunteer Fire / Technical Rescue Team
- Adair County E911 Center
- Columbia – Adair County Fire Department
- Cumberland County Rescue Squad
- Campbellsville Fire / Rescue
- Campbellsville Police Department Drone Operations
- Kentucky Emergency Management EOC
- Kentucky Emergency Management Area 10 Manager Bruce Crouch
- Adair County Ambulance Service
- CSI of Kentucky
- Fly High Aerial Drone Photography
- Alpha Team Air Support
- Adair County Sheriff’s Office
(Adair County Emergency Management)