Leon Klopfenstein half-buried in grain with firefighters demonstrating the rescue and EMA Director Ed Bohn (left) watching.
Paulding County OSU Extension Office planned a special safety seminar for Paulding County residents. The informative meeting brought people from around the county and taught farms about the potential dangers of grain and how to narrow risks around the equipment and grain.
The Friday evening event began at 6:30 pm at the Fairgrounds. Ed Bohn of the Paulding County EMA and Sarah Noggle of the OSU Extension office in Paulding County set the educational and training event up.
Farm safety is very important. Educator Kent McGuire said that already this year six people had been killed do to these types of accidents.
One type of farm dangers is the equipment such as augers that don’t stop if something other than grain gets in. Kent demonstrated that very quickly an auger can grab loose clothing and suck a person straight into the machine.
Approximately 1500 cases have been documented and entered into Purdue’s Agriculture Confined Spaces Incident Database (PACSID), with the earliest case dating back to 1964. Today, too many times, victims of grain entrapment are working in much fuller and larger bins, and things go south so quickly that they’re pulled beneath the pile and suffocated literally within seconds.
Nick, who was there with Kent, brought young people up to see if they could pull a small platform with a heavy rope tied to it up through garbage can full of grain. Even though Mark Wolfle was able to pull it out, it would be difficult to pull a person who had been sucked down under the grain.
Another danger taught was how grain can build a hard shell on top, almost like ice, and stay there even after the storage has been emptied. Someone might walk on it and then it falls through.
Ed Bohn brought in firefighters for training and to demonstrate how an individual might be saved from being trapped in grain. Leon Klopfenstein from the Scott Fire Department was the person being rescued after the augers had pulled him down to waist level in the corn. The firefighters used these metal containment sections that could be screwed together to make a small confined space around the victim. Then they would use a hose with compressed air where they could vacuum the grain from the area until the person could climb out on their own. Other vacuums could work such as a shop vac but with the explosive nature of grain dust the motor would have to be outside the bin.
Children and adults are both susceptible to accidents on the farm and minimizing these can ensure success and safety.
Goyings Farms north of Paulding was kind to house the semi-truck and provide the grain for the demonstration units. The program setup by the county EMA and the OSU Extension office was an excellent reminder of the importance of safety on the farm.
