On April 7, first responders with the Traer, Dysart, Gladbrook, Garwin, Beamon, Conrad, Reinbeck, and Clutier fire departments will receive, hands-on grain rescue training to help protect against gin bin entrapments, in Tama County and surrounding areas.

The training resources are being provided by Nationwide and Pillar Insurance through Nationwide’s Grain Bin Safety Advocacy campaign, which has supplied grain rescue tubes and hands-on training to over  200 rural fire departments across 31 states since 2014.

The fire departments, many of which received their grain rescue tube equipment through Nationwide’s campaign, will be trained by the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety using a state-of-the-art grant entrapment simulator to conduct entrapment and rescue simulations.

Grain entrapments continue to be a concern in rural Iowa, with recent rescues in Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids.  In 2020, at least 35 grant entrapment cases occurred resulting 20 fatalities.