By John D. Russell
Florence Morning News
FLORENCE, S.C. — Many products at the 2nd Annual SC AgriBiz & Farm Expo were designed to save farmers money but one educational session helped area emergency personnel learn how to save their lives.
According to statistics, over a 50 year span. their were 900 cases of grain engulfment. Of those, 62 percent were fatal. In 2010, more than 30 U.S. workers were killed in grain engulfments -- the highest year on record.
National Education Center for Agricultural Safety Director (NECAS) director Dan Neenan came from Peosta, Iowa with his Grain Bin safety simulator to make sure emergency personnel know what to do if someone becomes trapped in a grain bin.
The program was made possible by a Susan Harwood OSHA training grant and NECAS developing a Confined Space Grain Bin Entry Program.
On Friday, EMS and Fire personnel from across the southeast learned techniques just in case it were to ever happen. Neenan said it takes a different approach and most of the time doesn’t involve using the normal extrication tools they’re used to. As part of the program he demonstrated how to use a grain rescue tube that could be used.
“When a call goes out about someone trapped in farm equipment they get out the jaws of life because that’s what we’ve been trained to do,” he said. “Agriculture equipment is made to much tougher specifications than automobiles. Sometimes if traditional extrication tools are used they won’t work and will break.”
He also said the primary way people get trapped is by going into the grain bin while the auger is running to remove grain.
“A standard auger in a grain bin can pull you in up to your waste in 15 seconds and completely submerge you in 30 seconds. Before you know it you could be in trouble,” Neenan said.
Dorchester County District 6 Volunteer Fire Chief and lifelong farmer Thomas Williams said he knows if a farmer goes into a grain bin they are supposed to use a safety line so they can pull themselves out.
“Most farmers have been in the grain bin a hundred times, but all it takes is that one time for something to happen,” Williams said.
He said his department brought 10 firefighters to learn about the grain bin rescue because, “a lot of our firefighters don’t farm or have ever been on a farm. They need to get this training so they know what to do in case this happens. It’s important to know how to go in the bin because if you don’t know what you’re doing they could get stuck too.”
In more than 30 years of firefighting Deputy Chief Shannon Tanner, of the City of Florence Fire Deparment, said he’s never had to do a bin rescue and admitted he didn’t know anything about how to do it. Tanner brought more than 20 members of the department’s confined space rescue team to learn on Friday morning. As far as he knows there are very few bins in the city but on occasion his department gives mutual aid to rural departments.
“This is a whole new concept for us. I thought it was interesting that the more you move around the more the victim can sink,” he said.
Neenan said the old philosophy to rescue someone engulfed in grain is to just pull them out.
“It’s not the answer. If a 165 pound victim is trapped up to their waste it takes 325 pounds of upward pressure to get them out. If they are trapped up to their neck it takes 625 pounds of pressure. You can’t apply that much pressure to someone,” he said.
NECAS is dedicated to preventing illnesses, injuries and deaths among farmers and ranchers, agricultural and horticultural workers and their families. In 1997 NECAS opened on the Northeast Iowa Community College Peosta Campus. It is the only organization with a hands-on farm equipment safety training center.