Many of the structures on farms have qualities that would cause them to meet the Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard as a confined space. However, most of the farming community is exempt from the federal and state OSHA regulations, including the regulations governing confined spaces.

Consequently rescuers can expect to find few, if any, of the safety components of confined spaces that are found in other industries. Even though most farms are exempt from these confined-space regulations, rescuers are not, even when dealing with the same exact structure!

The training needed by fire, rescue and EMS services to conduct rescues and recoveries from confined spaces includes:

• Formulation of response plans;
• Use of personal protective equipment, including SCBA and airline systems;
• Use of atmospheric monitoring equipment;
• Retrieval system techniques, including tripods;
• Rope system techniques;
• A-frame and gin-pole techniques;
• Ventilation techniques;
• First aid and CPR;
• Lock out and tag out procedures; and
• Actual practice on confined-space rescues and recoveries.

Risk assessment

Rural fire-rescue departments should identify and train on agricultural confined-space structures in their district. Rescuers who conduct a rescue or recovery in an unknown confined space are at a distinct disadvantage. Knowing the types of confined spaces and their respective hazards and possible rescue scenarios is critical. Most owners and operators of such facilities are eager to share this information. Their assessments can form the basis for developing preplans.

Because much of agriculture is exempt from many OSHA regulations, no one will be there to hand rescuers written details of the confined space. More likely, those who are most familiar with the space either are not there or are the victims inside.

Once on scene, there may be farm workers, neighbor farmers or even some of your own crew attempting a rescue. Multiple fatalities of would-be rescuers are well-documented, so a personnel accountability system must be used for these operations. Limiting additional people from entering the space may be the best possible course of action for the officer in charge. Use of the incident command system is required.

Once as much information as possible is gathered about the confined space and victims, entry can be considered. A basic understanding of and training in farm structures is imperative for rescuers to be able to identify hazards and operate safe confined-space rescues.

Air-quality monitoring for levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and combustible or hazardous gases must be performed. Atmospheric monitoring equipment needs to be portable, sensitive, selective and able to provide for continuous monitoring. The removing or disabling of energy sources must be performed. Electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, and chemical hazards must be dealt with, and other problems such as noise, tripping, falling, engulfment, and temperature extremes must be considered.

Grain bins

Grain bins are common to many North American farms, where they're used to dry and store harvested grain such as corn, wheat, oats, barley and rye. Unlike silos, which come in a variety of styles that can be hard to distinguish, grain bins from different manufacturers are constructed similarly and operate on the same principles.

Grain bins are cylindrical structures built from corrugated, galvanized-steel panels that are bolted together. Grain bins rest on concrete and differ in size, holding from 1,000 to 100,000 bushels. It's critical that fire-rescue personnel be able to differentiate among grain bins, grain elevators and silos. All can store grain, but each operates very differently. Mishandling of incidents involving grain bins and silos has led to numerous deaths.

All grain bins can be used to store grain, but some grain bins also dry the harvested grain. Grain bins are loaded from the top and unloaded through openings in the floor. Bins have permanently attached ladders or steps on the exterior and interior of the structure.

Because grain is harvested at too high a moisture content for storage, it must be dried for any long-term storage. Bins that simply store the grain have concrete floors that the grain rests on. Drying bins use slotted false floors, huge drying fans and vertically operating mixing augers that work in combination to dry the grain. The fans bring in air from the outside of the bin and up through the slotted floor and grain. The mixing augers ensure that even drying occurs throughout the bin.

Common hazards

The hazards associated with grain bins include engulfment and burial, falls from heights, dust and mold inhalation, pesticide exposure, electrocutions, and injuries from augers and drive belts inside and outside the bin. Farm workers need to enter grain bins occasionally to inspect the grain, conduct maintenance and spray insecticides. Farm children also find grain bins to be exciting places to play.

Engulfment and burial

Farm workers are buried in grain bins by being drawn into flowing grain, by walking on a bridge of spoiled grain that collapses and by standing under a vertical wall of spoiled grain that collapses.

Dried grain flows easily and naturally. Because grain bins empty through openings in the center of the floor, the grain forms a funnel-like shape when emptying. When a person steps onto the surface of this funnel-shaped quantity of grain, the person can quickly become drawn down toward the emptying opening. Adults can become buried in a matter of seconds, and children are buried even faster.

Grain that has spoiled can form a bridge or crust on the top surface of the grain. As the bin is emptied, a hollow area is created beneath the bridge. An unsuspecting person who walks onto the bridge can cause it to collapse. The victim then is buried beneath the grain and ends up near the middle of the bin.

Some spoiled grain creates a near-vertical wall inside the bin, usually around the bin sidewall. In an attempt to break this wall up, a worker can be buried beneath it. Each of these causes of engulfment or burial requires a well-coordinated rescue.

Falls from heights

Grain bins can be 30 or 40 feet tall, and the ladders on these bins can become very slippery in inclement weather or when the boots of farmers or firefighters are slippery. Newer, larger bins have staircases, which reduce the possibility of falls. Rescuers encountering a farmer at the base of a bin should suspect a fall and treat the patient appropriately.

Dust and mold reactions

The atmosphere around stored grain can contain high concentrations of dust and mold spores. Some people, including rescuers, can be hypersensitive to breathing this air. Like any confined-space operation, SCBA use is required. Once an adequately breathing victim is accessible, he or she should be fitted with a high-flow oxygen mask to increase the concentration of oxygen and reduce the dust and mold entering the lungs.

Pesticide exposure

Some farmers spray their bins and grain with fumigants and pesticides to reduce insect infestations. These chemicals, including Malathion, are extremely toxic. These chemicals can be absorbed through the skin, injuring worker and rescuer alike. Extreme caution should be taken when discovering a farm worker near a bin where it appears spraying has occurred. Hazmat patient decontamination and treatment strategies must be used in these cases.

Electrocutions

Entire bins can be energized as they require electrical service to run the augers and drying fans, and farm workers can be electrocuted by this equipment. Overhead electrical lines are sometimes contacted by workers who are moving augers or raising the beds of dump trucks. In addition, electrocution by lightning can occur. Extreme caution should be exercised when approaching a farmer on the ground next to an auger or raised dump truck near an electrical line.

Injuries from grain bin machinery

An injury from machinery inside and around bins is usually caused by rotating augers, shafts or pulleys. Bruises, lacerations, avulsions and even amputations, can occur. The extrication and EMS care for these patients is complicated by the confined-space nature of the structure. Be sure to lock out and tag out electrical service to the grain bin.

Partial submersion

Victims of grain bin engulfment and burial are either partially or totally submerged. Remember that other workers or would-be rescuers also may be buried. Therefore, be sure to account for all workers, farm children and even rescuers who may have responded directly to the scene. Rescues differ depending on whether a victim is partially or totally submerged.

Partially submerged patients will be visible and easy to locate. Before attempting a rescue, the electrical service to the bin's emptying and mixing augers must be disconnected. Rescuers must be sure that their actions don't activate any unloading or mixing augers inside the bin, because further entrapment and injury of victims and rescuers could result.

Once the victim is located, a rescuer should descend to the victim while following proper confined-space procedures and using a breathing apparatus, harness and safety line anchored above the rescuer. A lifeline should be attached to the patient.

Special attention to the patient's airway and breathing is important. Grain may be in the victim's airway, and grain around the patient's chest could severely reduce the his or her ability to breathe. High-flow, high-concentration oxygen should be administered, and the patient should be ventilated as needed.

Simply pulling out a patient buried in grain requires tremendous force and can severely injure the patient. Shoveling the grain is also a problem, as it's fluid nature cause the grain to flow right back on the victim. Some type of shielding, such as EMS backboards, must be used. Farmers usually will have large scoop shovels for rescuers' use.

The condition of the patient will dictate the method of removal from the bin. Keep in mind that spinal injury is possible if a fall occurred. If the person is unstable, the quickest manner to extricate the patient will be to cut a hole in the bin's wall at the level of the grain, as long as the grain is above the access doors. If the grain level is low, the bin's access doors should be used.

Complete submersion

Totally submerged victims require a more aggressive mode of rescue. The bin must be emptied as quickly and safely as possible. Efforts to dig out a totally buried victim from inside the bin are fruitless. You can't use the bin's unloading augers in the floor because they will only draw a victim deeper. The rescue of a totally submerged victim must follow a certain procedure.

First, an interior sector should climb the bin's exterior and look at the grain. Once the interior sector confirms a total submersion, the decision to cut the bin should be made. The rescuer should remain out of the grain until the victim becomes visible. The rescuer must not go into the grain during the rapid evacuation of grains from the bin. The rescuer can land on the grain only after securely attached from above via lifeline and harness.

Cutting openings in the side of the grain bin is the most effective manner to empty a grain bin rapidly. Openings can be cut in the side with a circular saw or high-pressure air chisel, keeping the cuts in the middle of each corrugated section while not transecting any bin reinforcing angle iron.

Holes should be cut at equal intervals around the bin to allow for a more even emptying while reducing the chance of the bin collapsing. V- or U-shaped openings are effective because they allow the exterior sector to control the flow as needed with a hole and long bar. Shovels or even tractors with loaders or blades will be required to move the exiting grain away from the bin.

Once the grain level has lowered enough to reveal the victim, he or she can be removed through one of the previously cut holes and resuscitated. It's common for these accidents to have multiple victims, so the emptying should continue until most of the grain has been emptied or all co-workers and would-be rescuers are accounted for. Remember, the bin's own bottom unloading unit can't be used as it will only draw any victims down deeper.

Although rescuers will want to get air to victims as quickly as possible, using the bin's aeration fan to circulate air through the grain is of questionable value. The use of the fans in total submersions may be useful in grain that has been consolidated or crusted, because air pockets may be available to the patient. However, if the grain surrounds virtually all portions of the victim's body and compresses the chest, the value of the fans is minimal. In addition, the aeration fan is extremely loud and makes communication extremely difficult.

Emergencies involving farm structures injure and kill farm workers and fire-rescue personnel. These structures present hazards that may not be obvious to fire-rescue personnel. Rural rescuers need to educate themselves on local agricultural practices and prepare themselves appropriately. Further farm rescue education of this type can be found at www.farmedic.com.

---

Ted Halpin is an extension support specialist for Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y, and the co-founder of the university's FARMEDIC program, which has been training rural fire-rescue personnel in farm emergencies since 1981. Halpin grew up on his family's farm and has 24 years of volunteer and career fire, rescue and EMS experience. He holds undergraduate degrees in agriculture and fire protection and a master's degree in public administration.

Grain Fires and Blasts

Fires in grain bins are typically caused by the drying operations. Grain dryers are huge fans that push air through the grain. These dryers are powered by electricity and natural gas or propane. The heat from a dryer fire or the overheating of grain can start the bin contents burning. In addition, a fire in one bin's dryer can generate enough heat to start adjacent bins to burn.

Like any fire, life safety is the first priority. Accounting for all of the co-workers, neighboring farmers and first responders is the main objective. In addition, exposures need to be assessed and protected, and the electrical and fuel supply to the bins should be shut off. These fires can only be extinguished by emptying the bin. Pouring water into a bin is time-consuming and yields little result. It's nearly impossible to completely extinguish a fire in a grain bin by simply pouring water into it.

No firefighters should enter a bin that's on fire. Firefighters have entered burning bins and lost their lives when they were buried in the flowing grain.

While fires are a possibility in grain bins, grain elevators are susceptible to explosions. Grain elevators are the huge concrete structures found next to railroad sidings and docks that store vast quantities of grain for later transport. Grain moves inside these structures via buckets and belts.

Grain dust is a major problem in these elevators. Extremely dense concentrations of dust can explode if a source of ignition is introduced. Such facilities make every effort to reduce the dust levels and the likelihood of an ignition. Sources of ignition include belt bearing failure and heating, as well as worker operations like welding.

Many blasts are actually two explosions. The first one causes more dust to become suspended and leads to a more powerful secondary explosion that causes casualties and profound structural damage. This extensive structural damage should cause fire-rescue personnel to be very cautious in apparatus positioning, inner parameters, and in the extent of search-and-rescue operations.

Priorities include life safety and exposure protection. Shutting down the flow of grain inside the structure will reduce the creation of additional dust and may help to limit the spread of the fire.