Grainnet

Diagram shows placement, size, and shape for the necessary openings to rescue someone completely submerged in grain. Simply cut the left and right sides of the triangle, and pull the top down, using the bottom as a hinge.

In any grain bin entrapment incident, rescuers will face one of two situations.

Either the victim is partially submerged in grain or completely submerged.

Partially Submerged

Anyone who is partially submerged in grain inside a storage tank should be able to be rescued with little or no injury.

One key is making sure the accident is discovered quickly and rescuers get there in a timely fashion.

A more important key is to make sure a partially-submerged victim doesn’t become a completely-submerged victim.

Here are some important points in rescuing people partially submerged in grain.

• Maintain visual contact with the victim at all times.

• Lock out and tag out all grain handling equipment associated with the tank.

• Have an emergency response plan in place for such an incident and follow it.

• Emergency responders should be trained in bin rescue procedures. At a minimum, the emergency response plan should contain explicit instructions on bin rescues that responders may consult.

• Maintain ventilation inside the tank at all times, both for the victim and rescuers.

• Anyone entering the tank must wear approved safety lines and harnesses, and another set should be supplied to the victim as quickly as possible.

• Keep the number of personnel inside the tank to a minimum, to avoid disturbing piled grain.

• Distribute the weight of the rescuers around the tank as much as possible.

• The best way to keep a partially submerged victim from becoming even more submerged is to install some type of retaining wall around him or her. Mill & Elevator Supply Co. (800-821-5578) offers a four-section plastic rescue tube that rescuers sink into the grain surrounding a victim.

• Remove grain from around the victim from inside the retaining wall.

• If necessary, assist the victim’s breathing using an oxygen mask.

• Once enough grain has been removed pull the victim out using the safety harness and lifeline to prevent further injury.

Completely Submerged

As serious as a partial submergence is, a complete submergence under the grain surface is far more serious.

Some scary statistics—92% of fully engulfed victims do not survive, and 60% of would-be rescuers contribute to the fatalities.

The key to rescuing a completely submerged victim, assuming he or she is still alive, is removing grain from the tank as quickly as possible, but doing so in a way that doesn't cause the tank to collapse.

A tank collapse would prevent a rescue, and place the rescuers in mortal danger, as well.

Here are steps to rescuing a completely submerged victim:

• Again, have an emergency response plan that includes rescue procedures. Those procedures must contain the setup of an incident command post with a specific person in charge and clear lines of authority. You don’t have time to argue about that when an incident happens.

• Make sure the plan includes detailed blueprints of each tank at the site.

• Evacuate any personnel from the tank, and lock out and tag out all grain handling equipment.

• Place an attendant on top of the tank with appropriate rescue gear. The attendant’s job is to watch inside the tank as grain is removed to spot the victim as he or she emerges from the pile.

• Mark four triangles (point up) at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, and 9 o’clock positions around the tank. Each side of the triangles should be 30 to 40 inches long.

• Cut through the tank walls simultaneously at the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions, then at the 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions. Make the cuts as high as you can reach.

• Cut through the walls with the appropriate tool—any type of manual saw, air cut-off tool, reciprocating saw, or skill saw.

• Do not use cutting torches, tractors, backhoes, end loaders, or forklifts.

•Be sure to leave the bottom side of the triangle intact. Pull down on the top of the triangle, using the bottom as a hinge.

• Position workers cutting through the walls to the side of the holes to avoid being swept away by the flow of the grain.

• Once the victim becomes visible, and grain is no longer flowing, proceed as in a partially-submerged rescue.

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