It's been a long time since there was a grain bin incident in Genesee County, which is one reason a training session for volunteer firefighters at the Fire Training Center on State Street Road was so important yesterday, said Jim Bouton, one of the county's emergency management coordinators.
"It's important to keep up your skills and learn what has been working and not working over the years," Bouton said.
Saturday's training was conducted by Dan Neena, director of the National Education Center for Agriculture Safety. The training session was co-sponsored by the Genesee County Farm Bureau and some local farmers attended, as well.
A farm worker might enter a grain bin because the top has become encrusted or for other maintenance work, and if he or she falls into the grain, can easily become trapped.
A rescuer can't simply grab a person buried in grain and pull him or her out.
"Once you’re trapped in the grain, the deeper you are, the more pounds that have to be exerted to release the person," Bouton said. "If we were try to pull a farmer who was trapped up to his neck, it would take like 650 pounds of pressure to try and pull him straight out. Well, that’s not possible."
Neena showed rescuers how to use a modular tube that is fitted around the victim's body, sunk into the grain, and then grain can be removed with an auger to suck the grain out of the tube, allowing the person to climb out of the grain.
The other danger for firefighters and the victim is that a grain bin is a confined space, which means potentially lower oxgyn levels, so rescuers need to be aware when breathing aparatus is required.
Firefighters were also trained how to use an especially designed saw for the task, to cut vents in the side of the grain bin so that grain can be released from around the person.
To learn about becoming a volunteer firefighter in your community, visit ReadyGenesee.com.
It's a very creepy feeling
It's a very creepy feeling being inside a grain or corn bin...on a few occasions when i worked at the agway feed mill i had to get inside one. definatly a weird feeling
Shouldn't grain bins (and
Shouldn't grain bins (and silos) be constructed with "relief doors" every 5' or so? Maybe not in a straight line vertically, but, spirally around the structure. Free-flowing grains would quickly lower themselves, it seems to me.
I remember having to go inside several silos, armed with nothing but a (strong) pitchfork, to loosen & toss silage out for feed. Ain't nothing free-flowing about that. But, definitely an oxygen-starved environment.
Ed, good idea except poses
Ed, good idea except poses more problems. First if the door is at 10 o clock and the worker is trapped at 3 oclock, there is several tons of material to move. 2. Structural intergrity might be compromised by adding a hole. 3. When the door is opened product may come down on the rescuers.
opening a door to let grain
opening a door to let grain flow out would only cause the trapped person to sink further down into it
That point I did forget about
That point I did forget about Jeff
OK. Just a thought I had.
OK. Just a thought I had.