BEATRICE – Emergency responders in southeast Nebraska recently teamed up with a farm cooperative for training on grain rescue incidents.


Gage County Emergency Manager Lisa Wiegand says Farmers Cooperative of Dorchester worked alongside members of the 3 and 33 Mutual Aid Association, made up of various fire and rescue units in the region…offering the training this past Saturday and Sunday.


"We trained on grain engulfment. We had 153 people...firefighters, EMS...that trained with us over a two-day period of time.....with four hour sessions. We made it flexible enough to be able to handle that."


Wiegand says in grain entrapment situations, fire and rescue personnel can come to the aid of victims but must also realize that emergency personnel can become victims themselves, in such instances.


The training event was put on through the Safety and Tactical Rescue Association. (SATRA)


This year during the height of the rural wildfire season in the area, farm co-ops, farmers and rural firefighters banded together in efforts to fight wildfires that scorched thousands of acres across the region.