Callaway fire awarded grain bin rescue tube
KINGDOM CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The North Callaway Fire Protection District received a life-saving grain rescue tube and hands-on instruction to help prevent grain deaths.
Nationwide and Graham insurance awarded the equipment to the protection district and 48 other fire departments across the country.
Lana Karhoff, chief of the North Callaway Fire Protection District, said the department would never have been able to afford the equipment independently.
Dan Neenan, Director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, said grain handling and storage play an important role in Missouri farming, but working with grain bins can be very dangerous.
"Once we are trying to feed the grain out, those clumps land on top of the sump, and then grain stops coming out. That typically is why a farmer gets into the bin in the first place and gets entrapped," Neenan said.
The grain works like quicksand, and after about 40 seconds of sinking into the grain, it could take more than 1000 pounds of force to pull someone out.
"There is oxygen in that packed grain, but what kills somebody is they get grain in their nose and their mouths, and then typically its four to six minutes," Neenan said.
The protection district has never had to rescue someone from a grain bin, but Karhoff said it is possible.
"To my knowledge, we have never in our district have had the need for extricating someone, but we do have a vast amount of grain bins in our area, and they are going up all the time. The potential is certainly there that it could happen someday," Karhoff said.
