Fire Department Tractor Rescue Training

[OTFD122]

I am on a Fire Dept and also a member of our training commitee that plans and conducts bi-weekly training drills. We wanted to conduct a different training than we have ever done before... So being the tractor enthusiast I am, I thought, why not tractor related emergencies? So we reviewed tractor safety in the classroom, than took to the farm for a few hands on demonstrations. One scenario was a PTO entrapment, the other was a loader failure, pinning a person. Here's a few pics for you guys!

Our farmer, Stewie:



Loader failure - using Hurst airbags to free victim:













PTO entrapment - Makes for a good demo!





The "non-tractorers" of the FD really enjoyed getting their hands on the equipment and learning how destructive a PTO can be

[Treemonkey1000]

Great idea! Ripped the stuffing right out of that big dummy didn't it!

[creekbend]

Great idea. Thanks for posting.

[engine29]

that's an excellent training. I'm a FF also in a rural area and also a tractor dealer. this would be a good training. like the pics. Good job.

[Bwgad96]

Same here ff in rural area, we need more if this type of training thanks for posting!

[Zebrafive]

I assume speed was not a priority since this was just training. Now my question, how fast were you able to raise the tractor and free the dummy?

[Downeyfire]

Great training.

[OTFD122]

I assume speed was not a priority since this was just training. Now my question, how fast were you able to raise the tractor and free the dummy?

Just training, so you are correct, speed was not a priority. We tried a couple ways, the fastest and most down-and-dirty (and least safe) method was to have everyone lift the front end by hand. The airbag method, much safer and controlled for us and the patient, took around 5 minutes, and that's likely the method we would use if it was an extremity or two trapped and there were no immediate life threats (i.e. someone not breathing)

[joshuabardwell]

Regarding the loader entrapment, is it assumed that the loader has weight in it at the time? Seems like otherwise, the fastest approach would be to just float the loader and then have people lift it off. If you can lift the front end of the tractor, you can float and lift the loader much easier.

Then again, if somebody is trapped under the bucket, maybe you don't want to screw around with the joystick.

[radioman]

My cousin got his fingers ripped off while trying to bump the pto by his sister to hook up the pto shaft. Th pto selector to allow it to spin was broken so they were bumping it to line up the spline and had several fingers ripped out but still dangling via skin. the medics were able to slow down the bleeding and keep fingers alive so it could be sewed back on. I never knew it happened till Xmas time when I saw how swollen they were.(happened in fall).
Funny thing is that the dairy farm went belly up and he became an ambulance medic since.