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December 05, 2014

05/12/2014: VIDEO - Recent innovations in grain bin rescue training and technology

In Indiana, USA, farmers’ chances of escaping grain bin accidents alive are better now thanks to some recent training by a number of area rescue teams, WANE.com reports.

Every year in the US roughly 35 grain bin accidents require emergency rescues, according to Purdue University, Indiana. Last year more than half of those accidents happened in Indiana. The vast majority occur on non OSHA-regulated family farms. 


The most frequent cause of accidents is farmers 'walking the grain,' which is a process of breaking up wet or frozen clustered grain. When the grain is flowing a person will get sucked down into it like quicksand or mud.

The Auburn, Indiana Fire Department took us through their newly implemented training procedures.

First they encase the victim in a special four-paneled aluminum tube to prevent more grain from crushing the victim with its weight.

“What (the tube) does is incapsulate the victim, providing a protective shield around them so the grain doesn’t push against their chest and suffocate them,” said Doug Cox, Deputy Chief of the Auburn Fire Department. 

An auger is then used to remove the grain from inside the rescue tube.

Rescue teams recommend never working around a grain bin alone, or there’ll be no one to turn off the grain flow if you fall in and no one to call for help.

Knowing the technical ways to free a victim and the rescue team’s proximity to the accident make all the difference between life and death for that farmer.


See the video HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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