LURAY, VA (Rocktown Now) — During harvest season, hundreds of Virginia farmers are working around grain bins, where the danger is not always visible – entrapment and death can happen in seconds. Flowing grain can pull a person under, or a crusted or bridged surface can collapse without warning and bury the occupant. According to farm safety data, grain-bin entrapments kill roughly two dozen American farmers every year.

Farmers in Page County grow more than 3,900 acres of corn and soybeans each year.

Nationwide Insurance is donating grain rescue tubes and hands-on training to more than 60 fire departments around the United States. One of those fire departments is the Luray Fire Department.

“Every grain rescue tube helps make a community safer and better prepared to respond when the unthinkable happens,” said Brad Liggett, president of Agribusiness at Nationwide. “Our goal is always prevention, but when a grain entrapment occurs, having trained and equipped first responders can make all the difference. We’re grateful for the fire departments and partners working every day to help protect farmers and save lives.”

Nationwide partners with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) to deliver the grain rescue tubes and training, traveling to each fire department with state-of-the-art grain entrapment simulators.