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Agricultural-type Rescue
Well Brothers & Sisters allot of us have been introduced to Ag Rescue a time or two in our careers. In this segment I'm looking to get your attention and info on the situations you have been delt and give us some insight on what works for you and what tools can be used. No matter where you are there will always be a place for this, whether in the city dealing with your commercial guys mowing or your local farmer baling hay to running that post hole digger and to the man that works at the local CO-OP...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Dalgarno on
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As mentioned, turning the auger backwards is a last-case scenario. Typically, the flighting will have pinched veins shut...bleeding may be minimal until you start turning.
Cut through the auger tube high enough to avoid the limb. Typically 1.5 times the length of the limb that's inside. We've seen the flighting pull the muscle that much. Even after wrapping it around the flighting, it can still be 1.5 times the length. Support the patient and the auger as best you can.
Arrange to transport the patient with the auger attached to the ER. Have the FD local to the ER meet the ambulance at the ER to perform the extrication. Bleeding will probably be quite bad once extrication starts, so you want to wait until everyone's ready.
There was a young boy south of here quite a few years ago that got his leg caught in an auger. The hospital and FD had to set up an ER on the ambulance ramp for the extrication.
We haven't had an auger incident for about 5 years. (20 year old exchange student from Germany lost his leg.) Hope not to see another one again.
Andrew
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Permalink Reply by Chief Dino on
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seen the high lift jack used to pull a door off during an extrication class, lots of power in a simple tool.
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Permalink Reply by roy yoder on
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hey the last photo 15 top photos plane crash do you know where that was. it looks a lot the one in macon county when he clipped a power line?
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Permalink Reply by Wade Seely on
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a body bag and the coroner
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Permalink Reply by Justin D. Hendricks on
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Good points, chief! I didn't mean to imply that a torch is the only way to go in this instance, because hazard mitigation for us and the patient are clearly paramount. Assuming it is safe, I like the torch option because it involves less moving or vibration of the equipment than air chisel, K12, reciprocating saw, or jaws (assuming jaws can even cut without cross-loading.) It also is faster than dis-assembly. I am talking here about oxygen torches such as the Arclight, because unlike oxy-acetylene, minimal heat transfer takes place to potentially harm the patient. Depending on the overall circumstances, judicious placement of fire blankets and wetting of materials inside the auger could make this a safe and relatively speedy process. Clearly there are many variables out there, forcing us as responders to always use our best judgment.
Thanks for starting the discussion! It has been very enjoyable.
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Permalink Reply by Firefighter Walther on
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thanks Chief!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Struts have their place in ag rescue, but they tend to end up speared into the dirt and not supporting the vehicle or machinery very well. Cribbing is the best for stabilization...lots and lots of cribbing. Farmland can eat a lot of cribbing.
"It takes a lumberyard..."
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Most augers have pretty light sheet metal housings. You can cut them easily with air chisels or sawzalls. There will be some vibration, but a lot of rescue units don't have access to a plasma cutter.
You don't need to cut the auger shafts in most cases, you can cut the casing a lot easier.
This is particularly true for the portable augers that fill typical farm grain bins.
The auger shaft is the heaviest, toughest part of the auger in most cases. Why attack the toughest part of the machine, when you can attack the light-guage metal that surrounds it?
Plasma cutters tend to ignite the powdered grain that typically fills the auger trough, too.
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Permalink Reply by Smoke Eater on
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Wow!!! Thank you all for the info. Actually my worst fear came true last night at around 1:30 AM. We were toned out for smoke in a building at the elevator. I was first on scene and took comand. It was in a grain dryer. That's a new one for me. Heavy smoke conditions on arrival so I called for extra tankers. Then after I did that, fire became visible. You talk about a pucker factor!!! These jackasses still had the blowers on fanning the fire. I asked one of them to turn the fans off so he did and the fire basically burned itself out. It was still smoldering pretty good when the engine arrived so I kept the mutual aid tankers comming just told them to shut down lights and sirens. After doing a search for extension, nothing was found. The grain company emptied the dryer into hopper wagons and dumped them onto a concrete pad in the middle of nowhere. We checked for further smoldering and found nothing. After 4 hrs. I was finally able to go home and go to bed.
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What were they drying? Around here, flax is the bad one to dry. Very low heat or else it catches fire easily. I've also heard that sunflowers are very bad, but we don't have the heat to grow them commercially here.
You did it right though...shut down the fans and the heat source (natural gas/electric/propane/???), then empty the dryer out. Due to the smoldering, the grain is usually no good anyways, so dumping it on the ground where you can get to it is the right thing to do.
Andrew
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Yeah, we usually get a couple of ammonia leaks per year. Half are in the summer because someone filled up the tank too full and now the relief valve is letting vapors out. The other half are uh-oh's either late fall or early spring. Everything from rolled semi-tankers to rolled farm wagons (like the pic CHIEF NORMAN posted). We even had one a while back where the hitch pin broke between the farmer's cultivator and the NH3 wagon. The safety release in the hose didn't let go. Pulled the hose apart and vented 1275 gallons (he had just filled his 1500 gallon tank) onto the air and ground.
For those that don't know, by law the tanks can only be filled to 85% capacity to allow for expansion.
Andrew
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They were drying soy beans and the heat source is natural gas. The Chief didn't want me cutting the gas because it runs other things there too. That was a call that I wanted to make. It was kind of an overkill with the 2 extra tankers but when it comes to that place, I take no chances. But the farmers have been cutting soy beans between rains around here so the moisture on the beans was high.
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