The Cloud Chief Fire Department has been awarded a grain bin safety rescue tube from Nationwide Insurance.
Every time farmers and grain handlers step into a grain bin to remove clumped or rotting grain, they risk their lives. It only takes seconds to be completely engulfed in flowing grain or suffocated and overcome by oxygen-deficient atmospheres.
Added to the risk is a lack of equipment needed by local fire departments and emergency responders to rescue workers who have been trapped in grain bins or other storage facilities.
According to researchers at Purdue University, more than 900 cases of grain engulfment have been reported with a fatality rate of 62% in the past 50 years, with the highest, single-year incident total of 38 documented grain entrapments resulting in 18 deaths in 2014.
Nationwide created the Nominate Your Fire Department Contest, in conjunction with Grain Bin Safety Week, an advocacy program to educate those entering grain bins to implement safe entry procedures and address the lack of specialized resources available to rural fire departments, who are responding to bin entrapments. This year’s campaign brings the totals to nearly 3,000 nominations and awards of grain rescue tubes and hands-on rescue training to 111 fire departments across 26 states including Ohio since starting the program in 2014.
“We encourage farmers and grain handlers to commit to always following safe grain bin safety procedures. Nationwide will continue to build safety awareness through great collaboration with industry leaders, agricultural professionals and emergency responders,” noted Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness. “It’s very exciting to see such widespread interest in the mission of zero lives lost.”