By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Plainville Fire Department recently received an $8,000 matching grant from the Heartland Community Foundation to purchase grain bin entrapment rescue equipment.
The equipment will be the only equipment between Ellis County and Phillipsburg. The project qualified for Rooks County Disaster funds as a disaster preparedness project, Sarah Meitner, Heartland executive director, said in an email.
The matching funds from the fire department came from a golf tournament fundraiser in April that raised $7,900, said Craig Wise, Plainville fire chief.
The rescue kits include safety harnesses, ropes, a tripod, a coffer bin and a grain auger. The equipment is on order. Some of the Plainville firefighters, who are all volunteers, have already received entrapment training. More firefighters will be trained once the equipment arrives.
Wise said the intent was this equipment would be used regionally and would be available to the Stockton Fire Department as well. Stockton firefighters also will be participating in rescue training.
A timely response is vital in grain bin accidents. Old or wet grain can get caked on the side of the grain bins. A farmer may enter the bin to break the grain lose and not realize there's a void in the grain underneath him or her, Wise said.
The farmer can sink into the grain and become entrapped almost as if they are encased in concrete, Wise said.
"If you go deep enough, it can cut how much air you can take into your lungs," Wise said. "If your chest can't expand, your lungs can't get the air.
"With that said, us having the equipment and the knowledge to deploy the equipment rapidly but efficiently is extremely important."
Wise said he thought the equipment is especially key to responding to possible entrapments at private grain bins rather than large co-op grain elevators that may have safety protocols built into their systems.
Plainville Fire has not had to respond to a grain bin entrapment during Wise's tenure.
"We would rather have the equipment and training and never need it than not have any of it and need it," he said.
Wise thanked the Heartland Foundation as well as members of the community who supported the project.
In a separate grant, the Stockton Fire Department received $6,000 from Heartland Community Foundation to purchase 14 carbon-fiber oxygen cylinders. The lightweight cylinders will allow firefighters to be more nimble and responsive in a fire and outfit them with the safest equipment.