Published June 18. 2015 12:00AM
Recently, some 30 volunteer firefighters from Kempton, Lynnport, New Tripoli, Weisenberg, Kutztown, Virginville and Centerport fire companies, along with 10 members of Lehigh County Special Operations, practiced their skills at grain bin rescues.
A grain bin rescue tube is forced down around an entrapped person inside a silo and then the grain is removed using an auger inside the tube, Director of Penn State's Managing Agricultural Emergencies program Dave Hill explained during the April practice session.
During the rescue drill, firefighters used a borrowed rescue tube, as neither Lehigh nor Berks county had one.
Well, that has all changed.
On May 28, Lehigh County Special Operations was presented a grain bin rescue tube by the Lehigh County Farm Bureau for use within the Lehigh Valley and beyond, during a ceremony at the Cetronia Ambulance Corps headquarters in South Whitehall.
PRESS PHOTOS BY LOU WHEELAND John Berry, extension educator with Penn State Extension Lehigh County; Lehigh County Farm Bureau President William Boyd; Penn State Managing Agricultural Emergencies Instructor Irwin Hamm and Andrew Garger, of Lehigh County Special Operations, are shown removing the grain bin rescue tube from inside a vehicle.
