First responders train with Grain CART
COSHOCTON – Members of several area fire departments and emergency management personnel gave up part of their weekend to attend training classes on a new device that now exists in Coshocton County. The training was coordinated by Coshocton County Emergency Management. A dinner was held on Friday evening for farm families to learn more about the equipment. The dinner was sponsored by the Coshocton Grain Company and Farm Credit Mid-America.
The Coshocton Foundation and Three Rivers Energy provided funds for the two day training using the Grain CART (Comprehensive Agricultural Rescue Trailer) for Coshocton County First Responders.
Following the classroom training using a small scale grain bin, the instructors and first responders headed to Three Rivers Energy LLC for live training and an actual demonstration of the equipment that now resides with the Bakersville Volunteer Fire Department.
The Grain CART is a product of The Ohio State University and was built entirely with donated funds.
Marvin Gingerich a member of the Baltic Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department volunteered to get stuck in a grain hopper for a live demonstration. Stuck in corn around mid-thigh, Gingerich could not move and first responders moved in for the staged rescue. Metal fabricated panels were attached together with pins and surrounded Gingerich. Then, using a bright red square auger that uses a cordless drill to turn the auger, first responders removed enough corn for Gingerich to climb out using metal supports welded on to the inside of the device. Photos of the rescue can be found on our website at www.coshoctonbeacontoday.com.
Following the rescue from the grain the class members staged a rescue from a grain bin mounted on the grain CART. Inside a grain storage bin, flowing grain can totally engulf a man in just 20 seconds.
Bakersville Asst. Chief John Ridenour said, “We were looking into this a few years ago. There were no rescue tools for grain bin rescues in Coshocton County and a few of us got together and started talking about it. We decided to go around and ask some of the corporations in the area if they could help buy it because it was a costly piece of equipment. With our yearly budget we just couldn’t afford it. We thought that this would be a good idea where we could better serve our community. It worked out and we got a big response from it. Everything that we bought has been 100 percent donated.”
Ridenour said, “We have a mutual aid agreement with all the fire departments in the county. If they need us for anything at all we’re just a page away. If they need us we will be there just as quick as can.”
“First of all I would like to thank the EMA for putting this together. This is a costly venture to do all this. With the Fire Marshalls office being here and the grain trailer here – it costs a lot of money. They were gracious enough to pay for all this and now we can train on our equipment and we’re planning on training real hard on it this week so if anything happens in the county we’ll be ready for it. I would also like to thank Three Rivers Energy and Interstate Commodities for helping us do this project.”
Alan Brinker, a commodities broker with Three Rivers Energy LLC said about the donation, “Obviously Three Rivers Energy is committed to projects like this to help the community. With us being a grain facility this is something that we want accessible to us and we also want it accessible to other farmers.”
The Bakersville Volunteer Fire Department also purchased rescue tubes and other safety equipment to be used for grain bin rescue.
Members of the State Fire Marshalls office conducted the training; Andy Bauer, Albert “Doc” Gross and Dave Torsell.
mark@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
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