CROTHERSVILLE
As members of the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department, Alan Jones and Sally Deaton hope they never have to rescue someone from a grain bin.
If that situation arises, though, they will know how to handle it.
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They were among the nearly 60 firefighters, farmers and others participating in Technical Awareness Training Night on Nov. 9 at Crothersville Junior-Senior High School.
Co-Alliance of Danville led the two-hour hands-on training, which included grain bin rescue demonstrations of engulfment of a person and extraction using rescue tubes.
“It gives you a whole new perspective on what goes on in the bin and how a person is impacted while being rescued in the bin,” Jones said. “The pressure on your chest is incredible. So glad I got to participate in this activity.”
Deaton helped rescue Jones from the bin during the training.
“This is a great opportunity for our firefighters and rescue personnel to train from because it was ‘real,’” she said. “Being able to actually rescue an individual in the simulated bin with corn and an auger actually in it was a great idea. I’m amazed as to how far you sink when you actually step on the corn.”
Crothersville FFA sponsored the free event, which drew people from seven different fire departments in the county thanks to the outreach of Ben Spencer, chief of the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department.
After everyone enjoyed a pork burger dinner, Michael Williams, safety and risk coordinator with Co-Alliance, led discussion in the school’s agriculture room before everyone headed outside to practice training.
That involved the use of Co-Alliance’s grain bin engulfment simulator, which is a unique, state-of-the-art mobile educational installation used by the company’s safety and risk management team to train fire departments across the state in grain rescue tactics.
Co-Alliance also takes the simulator to community events in order to generate public safety awareness.
“The biggest point we try to show kids and other members of the community is that once you get caught in grain, even just up to your knees, it takes a lot of strength to pull yourself out,” Williams said. “There are a lot of teenagers and old-time farmers that think that they can rescue themselves if they get trapped, but that’s just not the case. The safest thing someone can do is to never put themselves in that situation.”
Noah Hoskins, vice president of Crothersville FFA, was chairman of Technical Awareness Training Night. After seeing a demonstration at the state FFA convention in the summer, he thought it would be a good idea to bring the training to the community.
“We know that there are several grain farmers in our area, and we wanted to do something that would be a positive impact here,” he said. “We spoke with our fire department, and things just progressed for this training.”
Crothersville FFA adviser Linda Myers said it was a good event for the community.
“We are so grateful to have Co-Alliance here to show the dangers of flowing grain and what to do in case a person gets caught in this circumstance,” she said. “We had no idea that we would have this big of a turnout, but we are so thankful to have everyone here. We hope that no one ever has to use this training, but just in case, hopefully, they understand more about it.”
Myers also expressed appreciation to Spencer for spreading the word to other local fire departments, Tampico Grain for loaning 250 bushels of corn to use and Jerry Boger, safety and risk manager for Premier Companies in Seymour.
“It was a huge success,” Myers said. “This turned out to be a huge activity, and we are so glad it was so well-attended.”