MALDEN — There are arguably few things more frightening — or potentially more deadly — than falling into or getting trapped in a grain bin.
However, the Malden Fire Department soon will have a new tool that will provide invaluable assistance to the department if someone does get trapped in a bin full of grain.
The Malden Fire Department is one of 48 departments that will be receiving a grain rescue tube as part of Nationwide Insurance’s Grain Bin Safety advocacy campaign. In addition, Nationwide will provide the department with hands-on training to use the tube if a grain entrapment occurs.
“According to the classes I’ve been in, in grain bin rescue the average survival rate is about 8%, so this rescue tube that we’re receiving will be great in this area,” Malden Fire Chief John “JJ” Johnson said. “We have Pop Weaver here, which handles popcorn grain, and lots of grain bins, so it’s a good opportunity for us. It could make a difference whether we get somebody out alive or not. In any situation like that, there’s no guarantees, but it’s a great tool to have at your disposal if you need it.”
Johnson said he is hopeful the grain rescue tube will arrive within the next month or so. He added the rescue tube also will be available to surrounding fire departments in case of a grain entrapment in their area.
“This one, I believe, it fastens around the person and then they have steps where they put their feet on it and push up to get out of the grain along with assistance,” Johnson said. “It’s actually an assistance device to help remove the person to get them out by using their own momentum.
“I haven’t seen the tube … (but I) know that the ones that we use in training courses are similar to that.”
According to a Nationwide Insurance press release, NECAS, a company based out of Peosta, Iowa, will deliver the rescue tube to the Malden Fire Department. NECAS also will provide the training to the department with state-of-the-art grain entrapment simulators and rescue tubes. The training sessions will include classroom education and rescue simulations using the entrapment tools, which are loaded onto 20-foot trailers and able to hold about 100 bushels of grain each.
According to researchers at Purdue University, more than 900 cases of grain entrapments have been reported in the past 50 years, with more than 550 deaths. In 2020, grain entrapments led to 20 deaths.
“It only takes seconds, or a simple mistake, for an adult to sink in the quicksand-like flow of grain and become fully entrapped or engulfed,” said Brad Liggett, Nationwide’s president of Agribusiness. “Adding to the risk is a lack of rescue equipment available to local fire departments and emergency responders who are called for help when a worker becomes trapped.”
Grain bins can be very unpredictable and dangerous to work with, Johnson said.
“(Silos) sometimes have moisture and they create pockets — and there’s actually places you can actually walk out on and there’s nothing below them,” Johnson said. “There’s a story of a guy who actually walked about 100 feet off the ground and he was testing a grain bin — it was his job — and he was down there and the guy said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He went in and showed there was nothing below him. There was about four foot of packed grain that he was walking — and had it given way, he’d have fell.”