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In an effort to provide training and awareness on grain bin safety, Ashtabula and Trumbull County Farm Bureaus sponsored a Grain Bin Rescue training and awareness for emergency personnel and local farmers and businesses in July 2017. The event was held in conjunction with Centerra Co-op, Anthony Daprile Nationwide Agency, Magyar Farms, and the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation. “

While planning the event, committee members began discussing the number of grain bins we have in the county and determined there was a need for rescue equipment,” says Mandy Orahood, Farm Bureau Organization Director. From those planning meetings the Ashtabula County Farm Bureau in partnership with Nationwide Insurance: Daprile Insurance Group, LLC joined forces to provide a grant opportunity to fire departments in the county to assist with the need for rescue equipment. “Farm Bureau is always looking for a way to not only give back to our members but to our community, says Orahood.

Any fire department in the county could apply for the grant. A committee composed of Farm Bureau volunteers, a Nationwide agent with Daprile Insurance, and a representative from Centerra reviewed the applications and based their decision on the fire department’s responses on the potential impact and benefit the rescue tube will have on the rural community and local fire department or emergency rescue team, and their ability to share the tube with nearby fire departments or emergency rescue teams.

In January, Farm Bureau and Daprile Insurance Agency awarded the Orwell Fire Department with the grain rescue equipment valued at over $3,000. The equipment included 6 panels, a rescue auger, and four 18×18” platforms. The panels create a tube-shape and are placed, one panel at a time, around a victim surrounded by grain to prevent him or her from being completely covered. Once the victim is surrounded by the wall and enough grain has been removed from the tube, firefighters can help the individual get out safely.

A grant was also provided in Trumbull County by the Trumbull County Farm Bureau and Daprile Insurance Group, LLC.

According to Ohio State University Extension, every 10 years, 235 farmers lose their life in an agricultural-related accident. Grain bin fatalities are steadily increasing each year. Such fatalities occur for a variety of reasons with the two most common being suffocation by engulfment and entanglement with moving parts.