Training could prove crucial in real-life grain bin incidents

You struggle to free yourself by shoving the grain away, but it’s flowing faster than you can move your hands. In 30 seconds, you’ve been completely engulfed.

There are programs to train first responders to prepare for such events, which could enable more rescues rather than recoveries.

On Aug. 27, the Postville Volunteer Fire Department of Allamakee County, Iowa, invited Dan Neenan, director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, to host a workshop at their station to teach the crew how to respond to calls about grain bin entrapments.

This program has been in operation since 2010.

“2010 was the worst year on record,” says Neenan. “There were 57 recorded engulfments nationally.”

He adds that the actual number of grain bin incidents could be around three times the recorded number, as many on family farms go unreported.

For the first part of his four-hour training session, Neenan showed the team a graphic presentation while verbalizing how grain bin incidents unfold — the situation described above — as well as the aftermath and potential outcomes.

He discusses five important rules:

• A person needs to be 18 to enter a confined space, according to OSHA regulations.
• Lockout and tag out the power source to the auger and make sure nothing is running. According to Neenan, someone being in the bin with the auger running is the No. 1 reason for entrapments and fatalities.
• Check air quality for lack of oxygen and use a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) when necessary.
• Everyone in the bin should be harnessed and tied properly.
• There should be a minimum of two people involved: one to enter the bin and the other to remain outside as a witness.

If there is trouble, the person outside needs to call for help and not go in after the victim.

After an hour in the classroom, it was time for the crew to practice Neenan’s instructions in a portable grain bin simulator. This machine is designed to sink a person waist deep in the grain and let others practice a rescue in a safe environment.

Before entering the bin, Neenan and adjunct instructor Tim Schmidt showed the crew the necessary equipment, such as a grain tube and portable auger, and how they would use them in the simulation and real life.

Using a grain tube and a pipe or bar to push all four panels down into the grain, first responders create a “cofferdam” around the trapped person.

Next, they use an auger to pump the grain outside. The grain tube prevents grain from spilling back around the person, and when enough has been pumped out, the person can begin pulling out.

After a demonstration, the crew split into two groups. While three men suited up with safety harnesses and helmets and prepared to climb into the simulator, others in the group watched from the ground or atop the nearby fire truck.

In addition to working with NECAS, Schmidt is also a full-time firefighter paramedic with the Dubuque Fire Department and volunteers for the Epworth Fire Department.

Many firefighters don’t know anything about farming, he said.

“By doing this, it gives them a better clue of what’s going to go on, what’s going to happen when you’re in there,” he said.

At Neenan’s request, the first crew member to be sunk in the grain bin simulator was wearing shorts. He wanted to show the impact grain has on skin with a couple hundred pounds of pressure behind it. After he was “rescued,” the crew member’s legs were pockmarked for more than an hour. He had been in the grain for only 19 minutes.

“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure that’s on the body,” Neenan says, noting that pressure on the chest makes it increasingly harder to breathe.

In real-life entrapments, people are typically stuck for much longer than 19 minutes.

Grain bin-related injuries and fatalities involve a lot of variables, including a person’s health, age, how long they’ve been trapped and how warm the bin is. Because of this, not all rescue missions can be successful in saving the victim.

“From the fire department side, we’re always going to treat it as a rescue until proven otherwise,” says Neenan.

Darwin Johnson is a volunteer firefighter, training officer and secretary-treasurer for the Postville Fire Department.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a grain bin rescue,” he says of the small-town department, but they want to be prepared and have proper equipment.

It’s the second time Neenan has been to their department for training.

“Every chance they get to put (the equipment) into the grain and be able to manipulate it and move it and use it helps them down the road,” Schmidt says. “Practice makes perfect, really. That’s the best way to put it.”

Being prepared for agricultural incidents, such as grain bin entrapments, can help first responders perform more effective rescues and minimize their own risk as well.

NECAS, which is based in Peosta, Iowa, travels all over the country to provide a variety of agricultural safety classes, including tractor rollover, grain bin and storage facility fire rescue and confined space manure pit rescue.

“With the grain rescue tubes that are coming out, we’re getting success stories,” says Neenan. “With our program, we’ve just had our eighth documented rescue with departments that have taken training that have gotten folks out alive. And that’s what it’s all about.”

Neenan suggests farms with grain bins invest in harnesses, air quality monitors, lockout/tag out equipment and to have emergency phone numbers and information readily available.

For more information or to inquire about a program, visit the NECAS website at http://www.necasag.org/.