AUGUSTINE, IL Chris Richmond was driven to act by the dog, which was caught atop tall grain silos on Springfield’s northeast side in 2019.
The stray had made its way to the top of the massive Pillsbury Mills, which had been the economic powerhouse of the central Illinois city for decades due to its flour-churning operations but had been vacant for more than 20 years. In such deterioration, rescue was deemed too dangerous by officials.
Richmond noted that the dog’s brief but precarious appearance—it was discovered dead at ground level days later, having consumed rat poison—represented the desolation offered by the empty campus.
The 54-year-old retired municipal fire marshal, whose father’s Pillsbury salary earned him and his brother first-generation college grads, said, “That’s when I said, ‘This is just unacceptable in our community.'”