PITTSVILLE, Wis. (RFD News) — Farm accidents can happen in the blink of an eye, but getting help is not always as quick.
Chief Jerry Minor with the Pittsville Fire Department says farm rescues are relatively rare for most departments.
“A farm accident is not something fire departments deal with every day or every week. They are a low-frequency event for us, which makes them more dangerous for us because we don’t do them all the time and practice for them. It doesn’t happen all the time. So it poses extra risks for the rescuers just because of the unfamiliarity. Years ago, I had lots of firefighters on departments that worked on farms. That is not the case today. So anytime we go into a rescue like this or a tractor rollover or something unique, it poses a special danger to those firefighters, those fire and EMS crews.”
When a grain bin accident does happen, it often requires specialized equipment and expertise. Minor says new technology like a compact grain vacuum could help improve rescue efforts.
“The bigger versions of these we see in co-ops. They go out to spills. They go out to transfer feed from one area to another. This one is compact. It’s on a trailer or on a cart basically. It fits in the back of a pickup truck. It can vacuum up grain about 40 times faster than our rescue auger can. It is a true life-saving device. We are looking at trying to fund this thing over, I don’t know how long of time, but this is our first opportunity to try one. I can tell you from watching what’s going on, this is the tool of the future that fire departments in joint effort with each other need to look at.”
Minor says many grain bin rescues can take up to 10 hours to complete, especially during the summer months.
