Although there were no injuries or fatalities, a recent grain-bin accident that occurred northeast of Drew, where a worker was trapped for nearly four hours, has stirred county emergency management personnel and county lawmakers to a proactive course of action.
During that accident, the Bolívar County Volunteer Fire Department had to be called in because they were the only ones in the area with a grain bin rescue tube.
The device is a specialized piece of equipment that is apparently widely recognized as being the industry standard for helping in these types of entrapment situations.
The mishap occurred just off of Hoard Lake Road two miles east of the Sunflower County line although Emergency Management Director Denny Evans admitted that they did not realize they were in Tallahatchie County at the time.
At Tuesday’s Sunflower County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Evans explained the techniques used to extract the trapped worker and extolled on the dangers of handling it improperly and without the essential equipment.
He said trying to simply pull the person out with a rope would be detrimental.
“You would rip the victim in half,” Evans said.
He added that the pull on the person’s body is almost like quicksand.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Clark advised the members that getting a trapped person out of a bin is not an easy task.
“This is work. This is not like pulling somebody out of a ditch,” he said.
Clark shared that the opening in the bin was small, and was dark, and the man had little to no oxygen because of the dust from the grain.
Evans added that it was a three to four hour operation, with the call coming in around 4:15 p.m., and it was nearly 8:30 p.m., before it was over. “But he (the victim) walked away from it,” Evans said.
Rescue workers had to climb into the bin with harnesses and assemble the tube around the man and then forced the tube down around his body so that the grain inside of the tube could be sucked out to alleviate the pressure on his body.
Evans told the Board of Supervisors that he is currently researching the devices and the supplemental gear because there are at least two types of tubes and he wants to purchase two sets of equipment so that each end of the county would have quick access.
Also, in the aftermath of the January 22 ordeal, Evans said an action team is being formed so they can be ready to respond to any future entrapment emergency and some county emergency volunteers have already had their first training session.
Board President Glenn Donald expressed a desire to purchase the apparatuses considering the number of grain bins located in the county, which increases the potential for disaster and asked Evans to explore any potential for grants that could assist with the purchase. He also mentioned a previous incident that resulted in the loss of life.
Donald thanked Evans for bringing the matter to their attention and then praised the county’s rescue volunteers for the great job that they do and suggested that the county implement an annual day of appreciation for them.
The Drew and Ruleville volunteer fire departments along with the Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department, MedStat, AirVac, and officers from the state penitentiary were on scene to assist, as well as the Tallahatchie volunteer firefighters and Tallahatchie County Sheriff’s Department, according to Evans.
At Monday’s session, the county lawmakers also questioned the EMA director regarding other safety matters including whether each county fire truck is equipped with a wench and cutting tools.
In other actions,
The county leaders voted to accept the low bid of $55,000 from Double S Construction to repair the eight piles at the now closed East Caile Road bridge. A second bid of $120,000 came in from McBride Co Construction. County engineer Ron Cassada said the repair job is a difficult one because first off the water has to be removed from under the bridge.
In addition, he said there are a lot of unknowns. “When you get down in there you don’t know how stable the ground is under the bridge, they have to get under there, excavate the piles, cut the piles off, pour a concrete collar around each pile in a muddy environment,” he said.
“This will get your bridge back open,” Cassada said. He explained that the price variation is mainly because different contractors have different ways of doing it.
Also, at the request of the Drew Volunteer Fire Department, the lawmakers voted to provide $2,056 for the repair of a pump on their jaws of life.
They also voted to assist the Sunflower Fire Department by providing $16,180 towards the purchase of their cutting equipment.
