Grain Rescue Training: Saving Lives Beyond the Prairies

Aug 14, 2025
By Farms.com

Grain hazards exist in rural communities across the country -- anywhere that grain is stored

When thinking about grain bins and grain entrapment incidents, most people likely conjure up images of Prairie farms. And while that’s understandable, grain hazards exist across the country anywhere that grain is stored—including far away from the Prairies on Prince Edward Island.

According to Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting data, there were 27 fatalities on Canadian farms due to asphyxiation from grain or soil between 2011 and 2020.

So, the PEI Federation of Agriculture (PEIFA) hosted the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association’s BeGrainSafe firefighter grain rescue training on the Island.

“Grain entrapments can happen anywhere, even here on PEI. This is the type of training that everyone hopes they will never have to use, but if a potentially life-threatening grain entrapment does occur, then there is knowledge of what to do,” explains Hannah Fraser, PEIFA’s sustainable agriculture specialist, noting that approximately 20 firefighters from across PEI took part in fall of 2024.

“Most of the firefighters on PEI are volunteers and a lot of them are also farmers, which hopefully helps heighten awareness about grain safety for those who work around grain,” explains Fraser.

Shannon Dumville is the chief instructor at the PEI Firefighters Association’s Fire School and has been a firefighter for about 25 years. He says that while grain rescues—fortunately—are not common on PEI, the training is still beneficial.

“On PEI, the grain storage facilities usually have smaller tanks because they’re not huge facilities, but the potential for an engulfment is always there, especially during harvest season,” says Dumville. “This isn’t something that we would need to use every day, thankfully, but that doesn’t make the training any less beneficial.”

Given that grain entrapments are low-probability, high-risk incidents, Dumville says the specialized training is essential for a successful rescue.

“The grain bin rescue is quite different than a lot of the other training we do and the actual technique is quite specific and unique, which is crucial in these situations,” Dumville explains.

At the core of the BeGrainSafe firefighter grain rescue training, which was introduced in 2017 due to an increase in grain entrapment fatalities, is a trailer outfitted with a built-in silo that can hold 7,000 pounds of grain, serving as a grain bin simulator. Positioned above the silo is a platform with a davit arm that can safely lower a person into the grain. Once entrapped, grain rescue trainers then demonstrate how to use tubes in combination with an auger to remove grain from around the individual until they can be freed from the grain.

“If a person becomes engulfed in grain and they are buried up to their waist, it’s not as easy as just grabbing the person and pulling them out. You have to remove the product from around them first before they can be extracted,” Dumville explains. “So, it’s quite a technical rescue and differs significantly from any other type of extrication that what we are used to.”

While the training experience can be intimidating at first, particularly for those who have never been around grain, it also leaves participants with a new perspective and appreciation for the severity of grain entrapments, particularly as participants take turns being safely entrapped in grain to understand how it feels.

“It was quite an eye-opening experience for those who took part in the training,” says Fraser. “The simulator experience certainly made people stop and think about how important the specialized training is for grain entrapment rescues.”

Fraser adds that the feedback received from participants afterwards was overwhelmingly positive, with many indicating they planned to tell their respective fire departments that more firefighters need to take the training.

“Since we are essentially a rural province, many people at the training emphasized how invaluable the knowledge is,” Fraser says. “This is really a community safety initiative because you never know when or where [a grain entrapment] will happen or who it will affect.”

And as the majority of firefighters on PEI are volunteers with day jobs, the training will hopefully help spread knowledge about grain hazards throughout other areas of the Island’s communities.

Dumville stresses he would encourage any fire department to take part in the training.

“At the end of the day, training is always valuable, and this is a specific course that’s specific to grain rescues. Unless you go through this training, you don’t realize what’s involved.” Adds Fraser, “Even if only one department here needs to use that [grain bin rescue] knowledge once, it’s worth it, especially if it saves a life.”

For more information about the BeGrainSafe program, please visit casaacsa.ca/BeGrainSafe.

Video: Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Understanding how a plant responds to stress is one thing.

Using that knowledge to make better management decisions is another.

Systemic acquired resistance, or SAR, is the plant's more direct defense response. When stress or infection occurs, the plant begins signaling throughout its system and preparing defensive compounds.

But if we know that response exists, can we help prepare the plant before the stress arrives?

The answer starts with understanding what triggers the response and what the plant needs to carry it out.

The Trigger and the Fuel

Salicylic acid plays an important role in triggering the SAR pathway.

Think of it as turning the truck on.

The engine may be running, but it still needs fuel to do the work.

In this case, manganese plays an important role in supporting the enzyme systems involved in the plant's defensive response.

This makes manganese status an important part of the conversation. Whether a producer is using tissue testing, sap analysis, or simply scouting for visible deficiency symptoms, the goal is to make sure the plant has adequate manganese available.

Manganese is required in relatively small amounts, but that does not make its role small.

If the plant receives a signal to defend itself but lacks the nutrition needed to support that response, it may struggle to carry out the process efficiently.

The trigger matters.

The fuel matters too.

Prepare Before the Stress Arrives

The best time to think about stress management is before the plant is overwhelmed.

Once a crop is already struggling, management can quickly turn into a game of catch-up.

This is similar to nitrogen management. Once a plant becomes severely deficient, correcting the problem does not necessarily erase the time and yield potential already lost.

Plant defense can work the same way.

Low-rate, targeted approaches designed to support the SAR pathway may fit best ahead of an expected stress event rather than after significant damage has already occurred.

That requires producers to think about predictable stress.

We may not know exactly what the weather will do tomorrow, but we generally know summer heat is coming. We know certain field conditions increase disease pressure. We know a herbicide application can temporarily stress a crop as the plant processes the chemistry.

Even a properly timed and labeled herbicide application can create a temporary response in the plant.

That does not mean the herbicide is bad.

Weeds can create significantly more yield loss than the temporary stress caused by controlling them.

The question is not whether we should eliminate every stressor.

The question is whether we can better prepare the plant to manage necessary and predictable stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

Stress is a normal part of plant growth.

A perfectly stress-free environment does not exist in the field.

In fact, some stress is necessary for normal plant development. A plant responds to wind, temperature, moisture, sunlight, and countless other environmental signals throughout the season.

The environment is stress.

The plant's job is to manage it.

Problems begin when the stress load becomes greater than the plant's ability to respond.

Extreme heat, drought, high salt concentrations, disease pressure, and even certain management practices can add to that load.

This is where understanding SAR becomes useful.

Instead of waiting until the plant is visibly struggling, producers can begin identifying periods when stress is likely and make management decisions around those windows.

ISR Starts With the Soil

While SAR is a more direct defense response, induced systemic resistance, or ISR, brings the conversation back to soil health.

The longevity of a farm is closely connected to the health of its soil.

Carbon plays a major role because it supports biological life within the soil. Bacteria, fungi, and other organisms interact with plant roots and influence how the plant grows, accesses nutrients, and prepares for stress.

This is why soil health cannot be reduced to one product or one application.

It is a system.

Keeping living plants in the field longer can support biological activity. Cover crops may fit some operations. Better water management can improve soil conditions.