PROSPECT — A specialized farm rescue team is being formed among members of four Butler County volunteer fire departments.

When up and running the team will be deployed to farm-related accidents and emergencies throughout the county, said Ken Wilson, chief of the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department.

“We're still in the planning stages,” Wilson said, “but we hope to be ready within the next six months.”

In addition to the Prospect VFD, the team will consist of firefighters from Portersville, Slippery Rock and Unionville departments.

Those departments last week got a major boost with the acquisition of a potentially life-saving piece of equipment called “The Great Wall of Rescue.”

The device is designed to save someone who accidentally falls through the top of a grain bin or silo.

The $3,000 piece of equipment was donated by Custom Agri Systems, Inc, a grain-handling equipment business with headquarters in Napoleon, Ohio, through the efforts of the Butler County Farm Bureau.

“When you're trapped in a grain bin, it suffocates you. It's like being in quicksand,” said Dan Zippay of Custom Agri Systems, who delivered the device June 26 to the Prospect fire station.

He said falls commonly happen when a worker is checking on the quality of the grain, making sure it's not moldy or wet, or when a worker is trying to free a jam.

Once the grain gets up to the waist of a trapped person, he cannot pull himself out. As he struggles, he sinks lower.

Five seconds is all it takes for flowing grain to engulf and trap a worker, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In 60 seconds, the worker is submerged and is in serious danger of death by suffocation. More than half of all workers engulfed in grain die this way. Many others suffer permanent disability.

A rope rescue is not an option, Zippay said, since the pressure on the body caused by the grain could cause serious injury in the attempt to extract the trapped person.

That's where the Great Wall of Rescue comes in.

The tool consists of lightweight aluminum panels that are placed around the victim and into the grain kind of like a sleeve. The panels are attached to one another making a wall that prevents more grain from closing in on the victim.

Next, Zippay explained, while rescuers press down on the panels, a portable auger is inserted. The auger siphons the grain from inside to outside the wall until the victim can be raised up safely.

“It's a very important piece of equipment,” Wilson said, “because there is nothing like it in our area.”

“Farmers have emergencies,” said Portersville Fire Chief Tim Saunders, “and we need the right tools for the right job at the right time.”

Zippay said because of the growing popularity of grain bins, particularly on farms in the northern and eastern parts of Butler County, he saw the need for the rescue tool.

Grain bins — which sort of resemble silos, but are shorter and stouter — are used to store dry grain to feed farm livestock. The bins are typically large, cylindrical chambers, between 20 and 60 feet tall.

Custom Agri Systems previously donated the same kind of tool to the Pine Township Engine Company in Mercer County. That donation caught the attention of Evelyn Minteer, a Butler County Farm Bureau director.

The group for the past year and a half had been raising funds in hopes of buying the tool, she said.

She and Zippay eventually talked and his company decided to make their donation to the farm bureau.

“We're very pleased,” Minteer said, “and grateful.”

She said that with the $3,800 already raised, the group now plans to purchase a Great Wall of Rescue for southern Butler County.

The planning, meanwhile, is ongoing for the county's farm rescue team, said Unionville Fire Chief Nathan Wulff.

“We're going to be working together to find an instructor knowledgeable in this type of rescue,” he said, “and come up with response plans so we can implement this in a real world emergency.”

The specialty team is needed, said Slippery Rock Fire Chief Ryan Hanchosky, to ensure sufficient manpower to answer the calls.

“Having a joint combination of departments,” he said, “kind of guarantees you're going to get there in a reasonable amount of time with the people properly trained to get things done.”