Demonstration in safety

HURON — He was never in danger, but Jaden Eddy now has an idea of what it would be like to be engulfed in a grain bin.
“I couldn’t move,” the 13-year-old from Emery said after emerging from a grain bin rescue simulation conducted by the safety team at Agtegra Cooperative at the State Fair.
The blue and yellow grain engulfment rescue trailer (GERT) has been a tool that for a number of years has been used to dramatically show school and 4-H kids, their moms and dads, firefighters and grain inspectors how people trapped in grain bins can be saved by using rescue tube and mini auger technology developed specifically for the grain industry.
“When you get trapped in grain, it’s very much like quicksand,” said Bill Spreeman, a member of the Agtegra safety team. “So it pulls you down really quickly.”
Farmers going into bins to check on the condition of the grain or to clear clogs should wear safety harnesses and a tag line so rescuers can find them right away if they’re trapped, he said.
“It’s minutes,” Spreeman said of the urgency involved. “It’s like drowning in water.”
At the State Fair, team members have been conducting four demonstrations each day, asking people to volunteer to be captured in the grain. As others look on from the ground and up on the upper level of the trailer, the team explains how they’re using the tube to save the individual as well as the hazards involved.
Spreeman said many eyes are opened to the fact that grain can move so quickly, or that when it reaches one’s waist you can’t just climb or step out of it.
The industry continues to see 20 to 30 incidents a year where a person dies after being trapped in a grain bin, he said.
Agtegra has donated 60 sets of rescue tubes and mini augers to volunteer fire departments up and down the Highway 281 corridor, in about 60 percent of South Dakota. The team has also done rescue demonstrations in North Dakota.

The cooperative takes GERT to schools as well, to show kids what could happen if they play in a grain bin or their mom or dad is working in one.
“It’s a great tool to educate everybody about the hazards associated with grain,” Spreeman said.
When someone is entrapped, it’s important to protect the air passage, he said.
“Something as simple as a baseball cap,” he said. “If you have a baseball cap, if you start to get engulfed, just cupping that over your face has been shown to save peoples’ lives.”
It’s important to remain calm, to keep one’s wits and not to panic.
“The other big thing is you don’t want other people to rush in to help because you could end up having multiple people engulfed,” Spreeman said.
There’s a few other do’s and don’ts.
“Our standard operating procedure is you never go in alone. Ever. Period. A communication system is critical,” he said. Usually it’s better if it’s somebody outside who is observing you, so if something happens they can get help right away.”
The demonstration shows how sections of the tube are connected to each other around the volunteer. As a mini auger, sucks the grain out of the enclosed space, rescuers push the sections down farther and farther around the volunteer “so they can just climb out of it like climbing a ladder,” Spreeman said.
Once in awhile, a volunteer will begin to panic. They’re in a tight, closed-in space and it can be claustrophobic, he said.
“When we’re doing the demonstrations we’re very careful to make sure we don’t get overzealous and bring the grain up too high on a person,” he said.
Team members keep talking to the person and if they suspect they may be panicking they will immediately stop and get them out, Spreeman said.
With current commodity market prices the way they are, more farmers may be holding off selling their grain as they hope for a better return.
“There’s a lot of people that may be storing grain that have never thought of doing it in the past,” Spreeman said.
“It’s one of those things that we really do need to make sure that we really do educate folks,” he said.

PHOTOS BY ANGELINA DELLA ROCCO/PLAINSMAN
Jaden Eddy, 13, of Emery, takes part in a grain bin rescue simulation conducted by Agtegra Cooperative at the State Fair.

Next, members of the Agtegra safety team monitor the simulation.