Grain bins dot the countryside across the U.S., but did you know that over the past 50 years, there have been 900 cases of grain bin engulfments? That’s why Nationwide and supporting partners hold Grain Bin Safety Week each year, hoping with enough discussion, the number of grain bin entrapments continues to decline, while the number of successful rescues continues to increase.
In 2014, Nationwide launched Grain Bin Safety Week, an effort to not only get the essential grain bin rescue tools in the hands of first responders, but also the essential training.
“We started this program back in 2014, to really partner with our agents and with a bunch of sponsors across the country to get the tools, the training, and more importantly, the resources out there to allow these folks to be educated on the dangers and the risks, but also help these fire departments and some lifesaving maneuvers that they can do to help save people if if the in the event something bad happens,” says Laramie Sandquist, associate vice president of Risk Management, Agribusiness for Nationwide.
In 2019 alone, there were 29 different entrapments, that resulted in 11 fatalities, and it’s estimated about 30% of grain bin rescues are never reported. Seeing the continued need for more tools and training, Nationwide introduced a program to help award grain bin rescue tubes to fire departments across the country, which also includes the necessary hands-on training that can be costly.
“Most of these tubes run anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000,” Sandquist says. “And the training itself, if you got it on the open market, would be somewhere in that same range. So, you’re looking at a $6,000- to $8,000-investment that a fire department would have to make.”
Each year, Nationwide partners with agricultural safety and training organizations to award emergency first responders with grain rescue tubes and the necessary hands-on rescue training. Sandquist says over the past decade, Nationwide has supplied more than $1 million worth of resources and training to local fire and rescue departments across the country, and the program isn’t finished.
From now through April 30, you can nominate your local fire and rescue department that still needs the grain bin rescue tube and training. This year alone, Nationwide hopes to award 50 grain bin rescue tubes from KC Supply, and necessary training, as the company continues to see those rescue tools help save lives.
“One of the more humbling statistics that we have is we’ve been able to at least save six lives as part of this program itself,” says Sandquist. “And we actually just had a recent save in Delaware, which used these tubes. So, the awareness is getting out there.”
To learn how you can nominate a fire and rescue department in need of rescue equipment, as well as training.
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