Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506190032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Medium
The blades on a hay combine revolve about 170 mph. They push hay against a flat metal bar, slicing and propelling it through two massive rollers that squeeze out moisture, making the crop ready to use.
When a person goes through one of these machines, it's not a pretty sight.
Several fire and rescue workers learned that Sunday as they watched a farmer get pulled into a disc-bladed hay combine feet first. He disappeared, sucked in like a mouse in a vacuum cleaner. Less than a second later, with a sickening pop, he crashed out the back of the machine, his legs torn off at the knees, his arms missing, his insides spilling out a rip in his side.
Fortunately, this farmer was made of hay.
The hapless straw dummy and several of his kinfolk were sacrificed here over the weekend in a variety of gruesome farm accidents staged during a 16-hour farm machinery safety and extrication class for fire and rescue workers sponsored by the state Department of Fire Programs.
A farm accident can be an eye-opener to rescuers used to automobile wrecks. For starters, one wheel of a tractor can weigh as much as an entire car. And farm machinery has many more complicated and moving parts.
"Normal rescue tools don't work on a farm machine," said Tommy Harper, the class instructor. "The Jaws of Life will not break the bolts and things that hold farm machines together. They're built out of heavier material."
A farmer himself, Harper, 51, has taken his self-designed class to rescuers around the state since 1989. He teaches students how farm machines work, how to shut them off, and how to dismantle machinery to rescue the injured and recover the dead.
He also teaches respect for farmers' lifestyles. Many farming families won't call a rescue squad, Harper said, because they fear an inexperienced rescuer will damage the expensive machines they need for their livelihoods.
He points to an accident several years ago in which a worker lost his hat in a mechanical feed bin. He reached for it, and was sucked in and killed. When rescuers saw how his body was twisted around a metal bar, they cut the bar out, ruining the machine.
"Knowing it's usually a farmer who has to pay for it, I'd probably get the body loose, instead of breaking the machine," Harper said. "If I destroy this piece of machinery, all the family's got left is a pile of junk. I try to leave it intact so if they need to use it, they can, or if they need to sell it, they can get something for it."
Harper knows about farm accidents. He's had some himself. About 25 years ago, he was loading grain into a silo blower - a large machine with a massive metal fan blade that sucks in tremendous amounts of grain and blows it out at terrific speed - when something went wrong.
He left the machine running and removed its guard to peer inside. Suddenly, a drawstring on his jacket got caught in the machine. His arm was sucked down toward the fan. As it spun around, his wrist was broken. Gears chewed into his elbow. His jacket was then ripped off so fast that he suffered burns to his back, neck and arms.
"If my jacket hadn't come off, I would've been pulled in it. I probably would've been chewed up. I wouldn't be here today," he said.
Now, Harper preaches farm safety. He's been with the Moneta Volunteer Fire Co. since 1977, and he's been the county's hazardous materials coordinator for more than a decade.
Curt Woolwine, a volunteer for the Moneta fire company, said, "I've worked around farm equipment all my life, but you learn a lot in this class that you'd never think would happen. I've done a lot of stuff without turning the machines off. After you work around it for awhile, you take a lot for granted. But this makes you think a lot more."
by CNB