SOUTHERN MARYLAND – Grain bin accidents send shockwaves through rural communities as farmers and grain handlers know all too well how quickly entering a grain bin can turn deadly.
To help prevent these accidents that result in dozens of lives lost each year, The National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) is providing life-saving resources to rural America’s first responders.
The National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), is awarding 58 fire departments across the country with grain rescue tubes and hands-on training to prepare them to respond when local grain entrapments occur.
After receiving more than 1,800 nominations across 45 states in the annual Nominate Your Fire Department Contest, a key piece of Nationwide’s Grain Bin Safety advocacy campaign, the insurer and its partners are proud to award grain rescue tubes and training to the following Maryland fire departments:
- Bel Alton Volunteer Fire Department and EMS Co 10, Bel Alton, MD
- Carroll County Volunteer Emergency Services Association, Westminster, MD
- Hebron Volunteer Fire Department, Hebron, MD
- Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department, Leonardtown, MD
- Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire District, Mechanicsville, MD
- Preston Volunteer Fire Company, Preston, MD
NECAS, based out of Peosta, IA, will deliver the rescue tubes and training to the winning fire departments throughout 2022, traveling to each location 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.