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On March 20 and 21, Crawford, Marion, Morrow and Richland County Farm Bureaus hosted four manure pit safety and rescue training sessions where 154 farmers, firefighters and other emergency personnel learned critical information about the hazards of working around manure pits, the importance of air quality monitoring, and how to use body harnesses, life lines, and retrieval equipment.

The training featured a one-of-a-kind manure pit rescue simulator developed through a partnership between Nationwide and the National Educational Center for Agricultural Safety. Firefighters and emergency personnel from 30 different departments learned about the hazards of confined space manure pits and how to safely conduct rescues of victims from these structures. The instructor stressed the importance of air-quality monitoring before, during and after rescues; the proper use of a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA); harnessing; rope rigging for below-grade rescues; and the use of a rescue tripod.

The sponsors were Farm Credit Mid America, Centerra Co-op, Hord Family Farms, Farmer Boy Ag, The First Citizens National Bank, CSI Insurance, Douce Insurance, Gerber Insurance and Hempy Water.

The need for training became tragically evident on August 10, 2021, when three brothers, all in their 30s, reportedly lost consciousness and died while performing maintenance in a manure pit on a farm in western Ohio. This tragic event serves as a grim reminder of the serious dangers posed by confined spaces and hazardous gases to hardworking farmers, ranchers, first responders and other individuals working in and around manure pits.

The county Farm Bureaus have been working for over a year to bring this comprehensive manure pit safety training to the area.