Improving agricultural incident response

CHILI, Wis. — Every farmer and farm family hopes to never encounter an accident, but when a farm accident does occur, it is in everyone’s best interest to have a well-trained response and rescue team.

That was the mission of the National Farm Medicine Center’s Agriculture Rescue Training Oct. 26 at Heiman Holsteins in Chili.

This year marked the fifth version of this program, revived from a successful predecessor in the 1980s and 1990s, said NFMC director Casper Bendixsen, who is a former firefighter. The program was restarted due to a $50,000 donation earmarked for the program, raised through the center’s Auction of Champions five years ago. Bendixsen said with that donation, the NFMC had the goal to operate the program for five years, training at least 500 firefighters — a goal they exceeded with this year’s training.

“Twenty years ago, half a rural fire department might have farm experience,” Bendixsen said. “Now there are fewer with farm experience, so when we revived this training, we were looking at a new generation of firefighters.”

The training provided each year is vital to the agricultural community and the teams that respond when the unthinkable happens, Bendixsen said.

“Ag workers and farm families are at high risk for injury,” Bendixsen said. “Rural (emergency medical services) covers large areas of land. Farm environments are unique; the things that pose problems and create the incidents are very unique.”

This year, 38 Wisconsin fire departments sent 76 trainees to the event. In addition to Wisconsin firefighters being trained, guests from fire and EMS departments in six states, along with members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health attended three days of training for trainers, with the intent to create additional training resource events in their areas.

“We really do not want to be the only shop in town,” Bendixsen said. “We want to have as many of these events as possible, all over the country to get people the training they need.”

Thirty-four trainees undertook the training for trainers instruction.

“We want folks to take back the highest quality version of training to their department, to customize it to what they need and spread the information to their people,” Bendixsen said. “We go through everything with them, how we plan, organize, set the equipment up; then they watch as the master trainers teach the training. The more trainers we have out there, the more accessible the training becomes.”

Five hands-on incidents were simulated for training this year, including both vertical and horizontal entry confined space rescues; large animal rescue; extrication; tractor rollover; and grain bin fire and rescue scenarios.

“To have two farms next to each other where you can have the space to do everything in one spot with five trainings is unique,” Bendixsen said.

Jeff Fournier was one of the attendees. Fournier retired from firefighting in Massachusetts and is now a member of his local volunteer fire department in St. Agatha, Maine. His experiences in agricultural response training, or the lack of it, prompted his trip to central Wisconsin.

“When I came back to Maine, I started asking questions, was anyone doing training regarding this,” Fournier said. “The answer was no one was.”

Fournier began searching for training classes and connected with Bendixsen at the NFMC.

“We have a lot of farms; ag is a huge business and it is very important to our community,” Fournier said. “When you have a major incident, just like any other traumatic incident to a community, it really stays there. Being able to prevent and to mitigate those injuries is a huge thing. It’s important for the fire department. We’re doing a disservice because we don’t know, what we don’t know.”

Fournier explained that his area in northeast Maine is remote. Agriculture is a primary industry, growing potatoes, broccoli, oats and grains, with a few small dairy and beef farms scattered. Forestry is the second largest industry.

“Aroostook County is the size of Massachusetts and Rhode Island put together, so it’s a big place and response times are long,” Fournier said. “Farm incidents are not common, but they aren’t uncommon, either. When they happen, it is a big deal. Farmers are very independent, when we get called, it is usually way after the incident because they have tried to mitigate it themselves.”

Because remoteness often affects agricultural incidents, Fournier’s goal is to train as many of his fellow Aroostook County responders as possible. Weather can also be a factor, as the area typically receives nearly 120 inches of snow annually.

“We don’t have a lot of volunteers and not everyone can show up all at once,” Fournier said. “Educating other departments will help, so that when one of us has to respond to an incident, we can go in numbers. We need to respond to those agricultural accidents with a lot of people because it often takes a lot of people to accomplish the task. That’s the goal — sharing resources and equipment, working together.”

Besides the training on dealing with the situation, Fournier is hoping to utilize the Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture Safety and Health training, creating relationships with farmers before a tragedy occurs.

“It’s really important for us to form those relationships, go out there so they know us and we know them,” Fournier said. “We don’t want to show up to an emergency and have it be our first date.”

Fournier said the three days of training he received from the NFMC event was phenomenal.

“This is so important because when you look at ag businesses as a whole, most people don’t understand that people could have millions of dollars of assets on that farm, whether it’s animals or DNA stored in a barn, machinery or harvested crops,” Fournier said. “You have families that have been doing the same thing for multiple generations; they have an investment. The municipality and the fire departments owe it to the taxpayers to be able to respond and respond well.”