Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety

From Jim Carrabba, Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing [Cooperstown, NY]:

When someone becomes helplessly engulfed in grain, rural firefighters are often the first and only line of defense. Unfortunately, many fire departments lack the specialized rescue techniques and equipment necessary for a successful grain bin rescue.

In conjunction with Grain Bin Safety Week (Feb. 21-27), Nationwide Insurance is teaming up with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), KC Supply and others to award emergency first responders with grain rescue tubes and hands-on rescue training to help save lives.

Winning entries will be awarded:

• One (1) grain rescue tube, valued between $3,000 to $5,000;
• One (1) six-hour grain entrapment rescue training session, at winner’s location, valued at up to $5,000. Training includes proper rescue procedures and use of the grain rescue tube, rescue auger, body harness/lifelines, lockout/tagout.

Since 2014, the contest has received more 3,000 nominations and has awarded grain rescue tubes and hands-on rescue training to over 110 fire departments in over 25 states.

Four of the rescue tubes have been used to save the lives of four farmers. Dan Neenan, director of NECAS, travels with a state-of-the-art grain entrapment simulator to deliver the rescue tube and training to the winning fire departments.

In 2020, there were 41 rescue tubes awarded to fire departments around the country.

Entries to the contest must be submitted no later than April 30.

To enter, describe how your local fire department or emergency rescue team and community would benefit from grain entrapment training and a rescue tube and, also, how the rescue tube and training could be shared with nearby departments.

Please include:

• Your name
• Occupation
• Phone number
• Mailing address
• Email address
• Name, address and phone number of the fire department or rescue team being nominated

Nominations may be submitted by the general public or by firefighters who wish to nominate their own department. Employees and agents of Nationwide Insurance are not eligible to submit nominations for the contest.

For more information visit this website.

Nominations can be submitted in one of three ways: 

1. Online
2. Via email: gbswinfo@nationwide.com
3. Mail to: NECAS, Grain Bin Safety Week Contest, 8342 NICC Drive, Peosta, IA 52068

Limit one entry per person, per email address, and per household or department.

For more information on this topic, e-mail jim.carrabba@bassett.org or call (800) 343-7527, ext. 2216.

The mission of the Northeast Center is to enhance the health of ag, forestry and fishing workers by identifying priority health and safety issues and working with those workers and stakeholders to develop prevention solutions.

Photo: Firefighters practice using a grain rescue tube using the NECAS Grain Bin Rescue simulator.