Fourth Annual Grain Bin Safety Contest

Our team is a proud partner of the Nominate Your Fire Department Contest hosted by Nationwide.

The safety contest runs from January 1 through May 31. It will award grain rescue tubes and specialized hands-on training to help first responders save lives when farmers and other workers become dangerously entrapped in grain bins and other grain storage structures. Nominate your fire department here!

“Our team is working to spread awareness of the hazards of grain to help save lives,” said Kevin Charleston, owner of Specialty Risk Insurance Agency. “It’s important to help educate the agriculture industry and ensure that we set a good example for our future generations.”

Since its inception in 2014, the contest has attracted over 1,000 nominations and awarded tubes and training to 32 fire departments across 15 states. One of those winners — the Westphalia Fire Department in Kansas — used their new skills in 2015 to rescue a man who became entrapped in a grain bin.

 “Deploying a grain rescue tube is the only way to safely remove someone trapped in grain,” said Brad Liggett, president of Nationwide Agribusiness. “Until we can convince all farmers and other grain handlers to develop a zero-entry mentality, we will strive to make tubes available.”

Nominations are accepted from the general public as well as from fire fighters who wish to nominate their own fire department.

Grain Bin Safety Week 2017 is made possible by Nationwide, CHS, West Side Salvage, Specialty Risk Insurance Agency, ABIS, KC Supply Co., The Scoular Company, Authur J Gallagher & Co., NOHR Wortmann Engineering, National Farm Medicine Center and the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety.