College grain-bin simulator helps emergency crews prepare for rescues

Mid-Plains Community College Fire Science Director Tim Zehnder has helped bring a portable grain-bin rescue simulator to the MCC campus and is ready to bring it to anyone interested in learning the proper rescue methods. He instructed first responders in grain-bin rescue methods for the first time this past week and is looking forward to taking it all over Southwest Nebraska. (Courtesy photo)

McCOOK, Nebraska -- When Tim J. Zehnder was named Fire Science Director at Mid-Plains Community College almost a year ago, he looked at his new home state with the eyes of someone trained in keeping the public safe. He saw how grain bins dominated the rural landscape and knew the dangers those structures can have.

When he arrived in Nebraska last March, Zehnder immediately saw the need for his new employer to help train area fire departments in grain-bin safety. Now, almost 1,000 hours of man-power later, his dreams of delivering a grain bin rescue simulator have become a reality.

Zehnder took the new rescue simulator to the Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors Les Lukert Convention in Kearney where he used it for the first time training emergency responders from around the state.

"This prop allows us to take it out to local fire departments, feedlots, co-ops, schools and virtually anywhere there is a need to teach grain bin rescue safety," Zehnder said.

The training structure features a simulated grain bin and utilizes a training dummy that is sucked down into the structure. Emergency responders will be trained on how to setup a rope system to raise the victim up out of the bin. The prop is mounted on a trailer with augers so that it all can be transported to various locations, requiring only a 16 foot clearance. It is 28 feet long and seven feet wide with functioning augers and plastic pellets in place of grain.

Zehnder said responders need to know the types of bins they may encounter, the dangers associated with specific designs, the mechanics of bins and how to operate a safe and successful rescue/recovery. An important part of that training includes the proper ropes, rigging and equipment to use in the rescue, the proper techniques for building a barricade around a victim, and the need maintaining proper air quality.

"Grain bin rescue-and-recovery operations are labor-intensive rescues and this will allow us to address major element of an operation," Zehnder said.

Over the years, farm-safety campaigns have helped reduce the number of grain-bin related fatalities but Zehnder said the sad reality is that 98 percent of those types of emergency calls end with a recovery mission.

With only a 2 percent chance of successful rescue responders need to know the proper way for recovering a body, including the safest methods for cutting a bin and where the grain will go. There are so many factors involved, that most responders won't have the background to anticipate everything that could go wrong.

Usually the person ends up in a grain bin when there is already a problem, such as rotting grain, a malfunctioning auger, grain bin maintenance or repair. The only way to prevent grain-bin related deaths is to prevent people from going in them in the first place.

MPCC is offering two types of grain bin safety training. One for firefighters and responders the other is a grain-bin awareness class for those involved in grain-bin operations.

For firefighters, the training sessions will be 12 hours unless additional rope and rigging training is needed. Classes can be split up into whatever works best for the trainees whether it's in two six-hour sessions or three four-hour sessions.

The grain-bin awareness class is an eight-hour class aimed at making those employed in agriculture-related businesses aware of the types of things emergency responders need and will ask about in responding to a grain-bin rescue operation.

For Zehnder, the delivery of the portable grain-bin to campus Feb. 4 was a personal one. His father designed a similar prop 10 years ago in Minnesota when fire departments began seeing more and more grain-bin incidents.

MFS York of Grand Island donated the grain bin. Ruggles Trailer Sales, Doak Construction, Swanson Sign and Kildare Lumber worked with Zehnder who manufactured most of it himself to the right specifications.

"The MPCC welding instructors and students at the Center For Applied Science and Technology helped with the welding, the MCC maintenance staff pitched in at various times and a number of people helped make this project a reality," Zehnder said. The city of McCook and the McCook Fire Department allowed Zehnder to use the fire station for housing the trailer during construction,

MPCC has rewritten their two year fire science degree to be implemented in the fall of 2014. The changes will move them toward an academy style setting, primarily utilizing day classes with less evening classes and following a more traditional college setting.

For more information, contact Zehnder at his office 308-345-8126, on his cell phone at (507) 84806535 or email at: zehndert@mpcc.edu