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| Michael Brand posted Grain Engulfment! Bob Bowerman: Michael Brandt I actually participated in a grain engulfment rescue. It was at the (then) Bunge grain loading station just north of Pontiac Illinois in the early '80's. This was before they perfected the equipment needed for an extraction and you just used what was available. I was a jr. buyer under Dave Hastings who was mgr/head buyer. Dave slammed the phone down and shouted "grab your (hard) hat!!!" and ran out the door like he was stealing home and headed off toward a big, million bushel bin we were emptying. These bins are huge and the floors are flat, so if you were doing a complete cleanout, you unbolted a huge door in the side and drove a big articulated diesel powered frontend loader and a couple large skid steers (all with spark arrestors) and they pushed the remaining corn to the unload holes in the floor. Everything is jumbo size in these terminals. The beltveyor under the floor was wide enough you could drive a vw van down it. The holes in the floor that the grain dropped through could swallow a wheel-barrow with ease. When we got inside, 3-4 employees were frantically shoveling corn away from a summer intern who was up to his lower chest in corn. The intern was holding it together but barely. We tried a variety of ways to free him none of which did anything more than leave him now almost to his neck in the corn. In all seriousness, all of us were in dire straights. We're up to our knees and he's up to his neck in corn, at the lowest point in the bin and we are surrounded by mountains of corn that is "hung-up" and if it broke loose and avalanched down on us the intern would surely suffocate and probably take a few of us rescuers with him. We eventually extricated him by driving boards from wood skids we broke up into the grain around him to form a dike and then hand scooping the corn out from around him. In the big bins those avalanches can 3-5' high and contain 10,000+ bushels. You never-ever turned your back on grain that was hung up. And you never-ever allowed yourself to get between hung-up grain and the drain hole. Nowadays they have training and specialized extraction kits, but back then not-so-much. bobb Kurt Altmann: that’s why it was so important to put lids back on the bins after checking bins. Therese Ryan-Haas: Don’t remind me. I moved out to corn county. This is a reality. Happens more than than it should. Last death was just a few weeks ago. Bob Bowerman: Michael Brandt It has only been since I started sharing the photos, have I understood just HOW dangerous mill/elevator jobs were back then. It wasn't so much that we were reckless as it was working in an environment whose very components carried mod/high risk and not having/implementing the accompanying safety program. Think of it as getting folks to store their gunpowder and matches in "cool, dry, sealed containers"...but not mentioning it is best if they are in SEPERATE containers. When I was young, the number of one-armed men was a good indication of what percent of a church's membership were corn farmers. Cornpickers were notorious for not being able to differentiate between ears of corn and arms of farmers. Neurological diseases run through my family it seems. Does the fact we had 3 generations working the feed mill/elevators have any bearing on this? Yes, you had training, gov't approved/mandated respirators and gloves, but I tell you this; You spend your day wading a zig-zag course through mountains of bone dry corn, where with each step you sink to the top of your work boots, in flat storage bins big enough to cover your high school's entire football complex, bleachers and all, humping a 60+ pound backpack sprayer full of weevilcide, which you mixed "a little stronger than "extra-strength" because to it doesn't kill weevils worth a damn at label rates". Spray nozzles plug, hose connections drip, hose clamps fail. At the end of your shift you drive home with a pounding headache, step into the laundry room, strip to the buff and throw your work clothes in the corner, if they are "clean enough to wear" you will wear them tomorrow, if they "need washing" your wife will throw your underware and socks in with the family's, your worn-out jeans and sleeveless workshirt will get washed separately, but if she's just a little short of a full load of family jeans it's just as likely your jeans will get thrown in with the family's. Before you leave to watch your son, Ryan, play football against the school arch-rival, you pop a couple of aspirin to counter the flu-like symptoms you are experiencing. You chase it with some Benadryl to stop the itching on your forearms and stifle the persistent dry cough you have developed. You repeat the dosage at bedtime and awake refreshed but stiff in the joints, ready to tackle another day. That's just the way it was. Some may protest and say it was different where they worked, but in my experience, what I just described was the SOP outside of the big grain terminals. A white male born in 1950 had a projected lifespan of 66-67 years. Dennis DeBruler: Bob Bowerman For decades, I knew grain dust explosions were a hazard in grain elevators. (My Dad was a tax accountant for Central Soya, and he explained why some of their elevators would blow up.) A few years ago I learned about the danger of engulfment and suffocation. Now I've learned that toxic chemicals were also a hazzard. We should also add to the list: falling from a significant height. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Bob's comment Thanks for the insight including driving equipment into the bin to clean it out. Was this the elevator? https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4... Bob Bowerman: Dennis DeBruler Yes although they have added considerable more storage over the years. I think it was the east-most large steel bin. Memory fails me if it was bought by Weston Grain which morphed into Prairie Central or whether they were already PC when they bought the Bunge location. If I remember right Dick West ran Weston Grain at the time I was at Bunge. Whoever it was, they were a formidable competitor in originating grain. |
In addition to a couple of really big bins, they have two locomotives. All of the bins make the original concrete silos look puny. I wonder if the long building holds more than all of the bins combined.
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| FS posted an article on seven steps for safety for entering a bin Martin S Hubbard: I was once a member of a team that recovered bodies out of grain bins. These were the result of people getting into Grain bins during or after some of the grain has been removed. Do not enter a grain bin that part of the grain has been removed. I would not even try it with a body harness and lanyard! |
Delphi Fire Department posted three photos with the comment: "This morning, Delphi Fire Department rescue truck 526 was requested to respond with manpower to assist Camden Jackson Township Fire Department on a grain bin rescue. The victim was successfully rescued using specialized grain bin rescue equipment and a technical rescue rope system. The victim was turned over to Carroll County EMS for evaluation and care. Other agencies on scene were Flora, Burrows and Rockfield Fire Departments and Carroll County Sherriff’s Department."
The Farmer's Life shared with the comment: "Glad one of our local departments had the right equipment on hand today. Not sure who it was for, but good to know there got out."
Pamela Dowdy: Glad rescue was successful, I lost my husband to grain bin entrapment. Terrible loss to family, it has been 13 years ago, but still hurts.
Kyle Pfledderer: All carroll county fire departments are equipped with grain bin rescue tubes and auger thanks to the FFA at carroll high school. We had a successful rescue due all departments that was called for manpower. Top-notch group of guys.
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| 2 [I think of ladder trucks reaching up, not out. I'm surprised that the outriggers could handle this large-radius load. I used street view to look for tall buildings in Delphi. I couldn't find any.] |
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