Article

Each year, tragedy strikes across rural America when lives are lost due to grain bin entrapments. To help lead the fight against these accidents, Nationwide, in partnership with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS), selected a record 29 fire departments as winners of the fifth annual Nominate Your Fire Department Contest. As recipients of the award, each department has been provided specialized bin rescue tubes and training courses.

Nationwide, the No. 1 farm insurer in the United States¹, created the Nominate Your Fire Department Contest, in accordance with Grain Bin Safety Week, after identifying a lack of specialized resources available to rural fire departments, who are often the only line of defense against bin entrapments.

“This year, I’m happy to announce that we’ve supplied rescue tubes to more fire departments than ever before,” said Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness. “Grain bin entrapments can devastate a family in a matter of seconds and we hope that this effort will help save lives that would otherwise be lost. Until we can convince all farmers to develop a zero-entry mentality, we will continue to make rescue resources as widely available as possible.”

Over the last 50 years, more than 900 cases of grain entrapments have been reported in the United States, and have resulted in a 62 percent fatality rate.² Since 2014, Nationwide’s annual safety contest has awarded rescue tubes and specialized training to 77 fire departments across 24 states. Nationwide-provided tubes have been used to save the lives of three individuals. This year’s Nominate Your Fire Department Contest was supported by Nationwide and 25 partners.

This year, more than 400 contest submissions were received and tubes were awarded to the following fire departments:
1.     Golden City Fire Department (Missouri)
2.     Carthage Fire Department (Missouri)
3.     Okeene Fire and Rescue (Oklahoma)
4.     McPherson Fire Department (Kansas)
5.     New Raymer/Stoneham Volunteer Fire Department (Colorado)
6.     Toledo Fire Protection District (Illinois)
7.     Stilesville Volunteer Fire Department (Indiana)
8.     Albert Lea Fire & Rescue (Minnesota)
9.     Hutchinson Fire Department (Minnesota)
10.     Detroit Lakes Fire Department (Minnesota)
11.     Langdon Fire Department (North Dakota)
12.     Greater Carson Rural Fire Protection District (North Dakota)
13.     Bridgewater Fire Department (South Dakota)
14.     Creighton Volunteer Fire Department (Nebraska)
15.     Kewaunee Fire Department (Wisconsin)
16.     Wauzeka Fire and Rescue (Wisconsin)
17.     St. Ansgar Fire Department (Iowa)
18.     Livingston-Clifton Fire Department (Wisconsin)
19.     Tampico Fire Department (Illinois)
20.     Howard City Fire Department (Michigan)
21.     Moorland Township Fire Department (Michigan)
22.     Almont Fire Department (Michigan)
23.     Middlefield Fire Department (Ohio)
24.     Defiance Fire Department (Ohio)
25.     Capon Valley Fire Company (West Virginia)
26.     Funkstown Volunteer Fire Company Inc (Maryland)
27.     Beaver County Technical Farm Rescue Team (Pennsylvania)
28.     Westons Mills Fire District (New York)
29.     Star Hose Fire Company No. 1 (Pennsylvania)

1 Source: 2016 SNL Financial Report. Based on statutory data.
2 Source: Research from Purdue University
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