“We’re getting the knowledge out to rescue people as to how best to get to people and help them. By being able to work with local fire departments, we’re doing better,” said Andy Bauer, manager of the London grain elevator at Heritage Cooperative.
Bauer said he has worked with fire departments in Urbana and West Liberty on grain engulfment and auger extraction.
Grain engulfments, which occur when farm workers become trapped or buried in grain storage facilities such as silos or trucks, require specific extraction techniques to have a positive result.
“We’ve helped them learn things like how to cut a grain bin so as not to create a bigger problem. If you don’t cut a bin on both sides, you can collapse it; if you cut it too low, you can’t get rid of the corn. There are a lot of factors to be aware of when the rescue attempt is made,” he said.
At the Farm Science Review, held Sept. 22 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, a volunteer — Mike Landon, a millwright with Heritage — was lowered about waist-deep into a mock grain bin with a 9-foot diameter.
“In a real rescue, the grain bin can be 24 to 105 feet in diameter and with the unloading speeds of new combines, a person can be buried before you know it,” Bauer said.
Safety precautions including wearing a harness, being tethered and having a person outside the bin, were highlighted during the demonstration.
“During one demonstration,” Bauer said, “a fire department training dummy was completely buried in only 2.5 seconds. It doesn’t take much movement to bury someone.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or elroberts@coxohio.com.
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