By Conner Toffan

Dunmore Fire Station educates public on dangers of working with grain bins

Mar 31, 2019 | 6:25 PM

DUNMORE, AB — The Dunmore Fire Station held a grain bin rescue demonstration on Sunday afternoon.

Kelly Meyer, Fire Chief for Cypress County says the demonstration is meant to train fire fighters, as well as educate the public on the dangers of dealing with grain bins.

Since Meyer’s time as Fire Chief, there haven’t been any calls for grain bin rescues at his station. He hopes they don’t get one because the consequences can be deadly. In 2015, seven people died of grain bin entrapment’s in Canada.

“For an adult my size it’s about 12-15 seconds before I’m fully engulfed in grain,” said Meyer when talking about the speed of which an accident can occur, “and when a patient gets engulfed in grain, we try to inhale. And when we try to get that grain to push out, nothing goes out.”

Numbers for grain bin entrapment’s in Canada have been on the rise according to Meyer. In a community largely based around agriculture and ranching, he believes demonstrations like this are important to educate the public that can deal with equipment like this on a daily basis come summertime.

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“Just having our members trained and our public aware of the dangers, that’s what we’re trying to do today.”

Meyer says if you decide to work in a grain bin to “stay in the line of site of someone else” along with making sure the equipment is well maintained.

“If there is an incident, shut everything down and don’t try to let that grain out, it’s just going to cause more problems,” said Meyer, who added that they should call 911 immediately after.