Nationwide has opened its eighth annual "Nominate Your Fire Department Contest" in recognition of Grain Bin Safety Week, Feb. 21-27, and nominations are open until April 30.

The goal of the contest is to deliver education and resources to agricultural professionals and promote safe bin-entry procedures. The program also awards life-saving rescue equipment and training to rural fire departments.

"Working in one of America’s most dangerous industries, most farmers and agricultural professionals have likely heard tragic stories of accidents resulting from grain entrapments,” said Brad Liggett, president of agribusiness at Nationwide. “These incidents send shock waves through rural communities when they occur and continue to present a significant industry issue, as thousands of farmers and commercial grain handlers are exposed each year to the life-threatening hazards associated with entering grain structures to remove rotted or clumped grain.”

Grain Bin Safety Week has been officially recognized by the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Since initiating its Grain Bin Safety advocacy campaign in 2014, Nationwide has supplied grain rescue tubes and training to 152 fire departments in 29 states.

“Nationwide's mission of protecting people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care directly aligns with our Grain Bin Safety advocacy program,” said Liggett. “Now more than ever, farmers are being recognized for the important role they play in food security and fueling our country. We are proud of our ability to provide grain rescue tubes and proper training to help protect the men and women who feed the world, and we aspire to make sure every fire department that needs it has access to these safety resources.”

At least four fire departments included in the program have utilized their tubes and training to rescue workers trapped in grain bins. In 2017, the Glenville Fire Department in Minnesota received a call to assist a local farmer who had fallen into a grain silo. Equipped with the grain rescue tube and training provided to the department nearly two years earlier, first responders were able to save the man’s life even though he’d been engulfed up to his face in flowing corn.

To help prevent further deaths and injuries, Nationwide collaborates each year with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety to provide safety training. NECAS instructors travel to training locations with state-of-the-art grain entrapment simulators and rescue tubes. The comprehensive training sessions include classroom education and rescue simulations using the entrapment tools, which are loaded onto 20-foot trailers and able to hold about 100 bushels of grain each.

The startling facts about grain entrapment

Sources: 2019 Summary of U.S. Agricultural Confined Space-Related Injuries and Fatalities and United Press International

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