Grain storage tank rescue

[gfd917]

I vollenteer at a rural department an wanted to know what the minimum certifications I should get for rescue situations

[ProgressiveRescue]

It all really depends on either what your departments responsibilities are and or what you wish to learn. I would say a good technical rescue training foundation would consist of the following programs.

Rope Rescue Levels 1&2
Structural Collapse Shoring Operations and Technician
Confined Space Rescue Operations
Trench Rescue
MVX Training

More advanced programs are always available but this in my opinion is a solid foundation to begin with. Keep your eyes and mind in the forum here. You'll learn a lot of great information from a lot of smart guys.
Mike Donahue

[ffemtb722]

Not sure where you are located but VA has a farm vehicle machinery class that covers stuff you might would incounter your state might have something similar

[gfd917]

Not sure where you are located but VA has a farm vehicle machinery class that covers stuff you might would incounter your state might have something similar

I am in central Kansas

[FiremanLyman]

I vollenteer at a rural department an wanted to know what the minimum certifications I should get for rescue situations

Depends on what your department is willing to support. Having certification in structural collapse is great, but if your department is not going to put together a collapse rescue rig with all the shoring, tools and materials then all you have is a piece of paper with your name on it.

Are you going to form a team? You cannot do much as a single rescuer. You get Rope Tech, and go pick a person off a radio tower. But if you are the one on rope who is running the system?

Basic Technical Rescue would start with a general rescuer course; ropes, knots, hardware, building systems. Next step is tech classes in water (swift and still water), rope tech, vehicle and machinery rescue, trench, confined space and possibly collapse. Again, train in areas that your department has an interest in supporting with equipment and personnel.

[gfd917]

there are severalpeople intrested in this

[TRT24]

I agree. rope, con space, trench,& collapse would all be a good basis. Even if the department is not going to support you with gear and equipment. The knowledge gained in these classes also let you you know what NOT TO DO if you are not prepared. After all, how many con space recoveries are of would be rescuers who did not know the dangers? I imagine that the middle of Kansas has a lot of ways to hurt a rescuer.

[HuntPA]

I am part of the program based out of Penn State that teaches agricultural rescue.
http://www.farmemergencies.psu.edu/
Silo and grain bins are covered in our curriculum under the confined space courses. You can browse through the site and see the offerings. As a prerequisite for our class we recommend:
Ropes
Confined Space
High Angle

Through the site's contact us link, you can email Dr. Davis Hill and he will gladly forward you some more information on the courses and what you can do to train for these types of emergencies.

[CGITCH]

We were recently given a GSI rescue tube (Whatever the name is), for grain bin rescue. They gave us a free class on how to use the tube, but not what to do to get the person out if they are unconcious or worse. We can sure as hell get them out of the grain but don't know what to do after. We are in the process of building our equipment set and will begin training with it soon. Does that Penn State program do stuff like this?

[gfd917]

I am most concerned about medical issues for the removal of the patient we would call for our county high angle team so we would do patient assessment and let them take over

[HuntPA]

We were recently given a GSI rescue tube (Whatever the name is), for grain bin rescue. They gave us a free class on how to use the tube, but not what to do to get the person out if they are unconcious or worse. We can sure as hell get them out of the grain but don't know what to do after. We are in the process of building our equipment set and will begin training with it soon. Does that Penn State program do stuff like this?

Our classes are patient based. We stress the medical care of the patient throughout the rescue/recovery. We stress the importance of gas monitoring, air ways, crush syndrome, and packaging in the grain bin portion of the classes. We also have charts showing the pressure exerted on the patient based on the depth of bury as well as the force needed to pull them out.

For more information on the classes, email [email protected]. Davis Hill is the person that put together the curriculum and can give you further information.

[CGITCH]

Throughout all of our operations in the bin we have medical personell in there monitoring our actions and the patients stability. We haven't had to perform one of these rescues yet, and hope we never have to. Although one of our customer's fathers (We sell grain dryers) had a heart attack while in a bin and while I was doing dryer I walked over and checked out the fixed bin. They ended up just cutting a bunch of holes and dumping grain on the ground and draining the thing. They knew it wasn't a rescue but a recovery.