ROME, Ohio — With grain entrapments being the leading cause of confined space-related injury and death on farms, Ohio’s first responders are intensifying their efforts to confront one of agriculture’s deadliest traps head-on.
Recently, more than 50 first responders from local Ohio fire departments convened at the Rome Fire Department in Ashtabula County ahead of one such incident they want to be ready for: a grain bin rescue.
The National Education Center for Agriculture Safety conducted the session Oct. 22, led by Brian Freese, a firefighter and instructor with extensive experience in agriculture-based rescue.
The training session emphasized the high stakes, immediate response strategies and specialized equipment needed to save lives in confined, hazardous farming environments.
“The reason we do this is because agriculture is and probably always will be statistically the most dangerous occupation in America,” Freese said.
“That simple”
Freese has provided various training to first responders in seven states since April this year, including one on manure pit safety and rescue and another on the dangers of a combine harvester’s augers. His rotation across the country highlights the urgent demand for the rescue training NECAS offers, particularly as statistics reveal a rise in farm accidents related to confined spaces and grain entrapment.
While tractor rollovers remain the primary cause of death on farms, statistics from a 2023 Purdue University study revealed grain entrapment is the leading cause of agricultural confined space-related injuries and fatalities. New findings reported no fewer than 55 cases involving agricultural confined spaces last year, with more than half of them fatal.
The study found a nearly 34% decrease over the 83 cases documented in 2022, but Freese said he believes that number will climb back up.
He illustrated the specific difficulties involved in rescuing a person trapped in a grain bin, demonstrating with rescue tubes, augers and hands-on techniques designed to give firefighters the best chance to save lives in situations where every second counts.
“Someone’s going to get trapped in grain. It’s as simple as, they go in the bin while the auger is running, or the auger gets turned on while they’re in there. That simple,” he said.
Most people get trapped when the grain gets just above their knees. In that scenario, the training made it clear that first responders have more than simply grain and gravity to be concerned about.
“Over in Iowa … 15, 16 years ago, I think,” Freese said, “a father and son entered their grain bin and they didn’t come back out. They weren’t trapped by grain. What killed them?”
A few attendees responded: “Gas.”
“Gas,” Freese said. “They had a fire in the bin. And the fire put itself out when it ran out of …”
A few more voices joined in. “Oxygen.”
“Oxygen,” Freese continued. “So, they never called the fire department. They went in the next day to check the damage and they didn’t come back out. When the fire department got there to retrieve the bodies, at that point, there was 1% oxygen in that grain bin, 500 parts per million of carbon monoxide. They were dead pretty quick.”
Many dangers
The training aimed to strengthen first responders’ existing skills. Regrouping outside, similar to the protocol in structure fires, allows responders to reassess a situation before heading back into a potentially hazardous area. Having a charged hose line is worth the time and trouble. Get families safely out of the way and explain to them that rescue takes time and is a process, Freese said, and keep them up-to-date. Make sure everyone on the team understands their responsibilities and is looking out for one another.
“If you’ve ever heard the phrase, ‘Don’t make this emergency your emergency,’ that’s what we’re talking about. You don’t do anybody any good if you get hurt or killed. So just use what you got, (and) be smart about it,” he said.
Freese said most fire departments woefully underestimate what a rapid intervention team will need. During an entrapment scenario, first responders must have the proper equipment, such as a high-quality 4-gas monitor. At no time in the class was the use of tripods, winches or other pulley systems discussed for rescuing farmers from grain bins, since they won’t do much good, Freese said. When trapped, pulling someone out of a grain bin manually is nearly impossible due to the force of the grain.
“So if I hook onto that guy with a winch and start cranking, what am I going to do?” Freese asked.
“Rip them in half,” someone answered.
“And we’ll get that part for you,” Freese said.
Grain entrapment is especially dangerous because of how quickly a person can be immobilized and pulled down in seconds. Freese later demonstrated how grain can sink someone to their waist in less than 15 seconds and completely bury them in 30. He also covered aspects of emergency medical care specific to grain rescues. Grain can exert immense pressure on a trapped person’s body, restricting blood flow. Prolonged entrapment can lead to crush syndrome, a potentially fatal condition that requires advanced medical support.
“The average extrication time in America is three and a half hours from the time you get on scene. Travel not included,” Freese said. “These tend to be long events, and they are labor and manpower intensive … These incidents happen much much quicker than most farmers realize, and most people realize.”
The demonstration
A local farm provided 110 bushels of grain for the exercises. At the end of the session, the grain was returned.
Ed Koziol, Rome fire chief, emphasized the importance of being prepared.
“We hope we never have to use it, but you can’t put a price on it. To go in there without something like this (training), you’re putting further risk to the victim and certainly higher risk to the rescuer,” Koziol said.
The methods that first responders use to rescue those trapped in grain bins have improved with the addition of grain rescue tubes. At the Rome session, first responders got to see them in action.
The grain tube gets built in panels to create a cofferdam around the victim. Meanwhile, a powerful auger, operated with a brushless drill to avoid casting sparks and causing potential explosions, vacuums the grain out of the tube surrounding the victim, removing two and a half bushels a minute.
It’s a process that takes teamwork, communication and precision — all of which are part of a firefighter’s normal repertoire, but which came into focus repeatedly during the session.
Dan Neenan, NECAS director, explained the importance of giving firefighters the resources to be successful.
“When we deliver those tubes, you never know who’s going to be the one to call you (later) and say, ‘Hey, you’ll never guess what,’” he said.
Correcting misconceptions is another goal of the grain bin rescue training.
“A lot of times, when we go to a bigger city, (first responders will) come up, and they’ll pick up the corn, and they’ll bounce it up and down in their hand. And they’ll say, ‘There’s no way this is going to trap me,’” Neenan said. “We make believers out of them in a real quick hurry.”
“A lifeline”
Across the country, the NECAS grain bin training program has distributed over 300 rescue tubes to local fire departments and has been credited with saving 42 lives. Now the Rome fire department has their own.
As interest in agricultural safety grows, NECAS continues expanding its offerings, including additional training on other farm hazards.
According to Neenan, NECAS’s role in educating firefighters on confined-space rescue protocols is vital as new challenges emerge.
“We’re finally starting to see the number of tractor roll over fatalities go down, but we’re starting to see the ATV, UTV fatalities go up,” he said.
For rural firefighters, many of whom grew up on or around farms, NECAS training sessions are more than just classroom lessons.
“I worked on farms as a kid through school, and it’s dangerous,” Koziol said. “I mean, you know, quite honestly, we were lucky. There was always a certain amount of safety, but it’s stressed far more now.”
The grain bin rescue training is more than a practical exercise — it’s a lifeline. As Neenan and Freese both stressed, a few hours of preparation could be the difference between a successful rescue and a tragic accident.
“It is a rescue until proven otherwise,” Freese said. “This problem is getting worse, not better.”
Farmers can nominate their fire department to receive their own rescue tube and training starting on Jan. 1 here.
