Fire Department Tractor Rescue Training

OTFD122 · Oct 10, 2012

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 · Oct 10, 2012

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

creekbend · Oct 10, 2012

Great idea. Thanks for posting. :thumbsup:

engine29 · Oct 10, 2012

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 · Oct 10, 2012

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

Zebrafive · Oct 14, 2012

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 · Oct 14, 2012

Great training.

OTFD122 · Oct 14, 2012

Zebrafive said:
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 · Oct 14, 2012

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 · Oct 14, 2012

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.

CompactTractorFan · Oct 14, 2012

Looks like some great training! Thanks for the pics.

We did some training like that last fall, but instead of lifting parts of a tractor, we lifted a school bus off a car:

OTFD122 · Oct 15, 2012

joshuabardwell said:
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.

Our scenario was that our "farmer" had some fence posts in the loader that he was securing when the loader failed... We just didn't have any real fence posts to put in there!

With the loader joystick, usually we do a lockout/tagout type procedure with any equipment entrapment, that way everything is secured and no one is hitting buttons or moving levers they shouldn't.

woodlandfarms · Oct 19, 2012

Ahhh.. I was about to ask the same. So... Lets say the loader has failed (it would be like being in float mode) you would have to raise the tractor a long ways to get the weight of the loader off the victim. Did you guys explore other methods to just relieve the loader pressure and not move the tractor?

Renze · Oct 19, 2012

PTO Safety - YouTube

This one shows pretty clear what can happen.

joshuabardwell · Oct 19, 2012

woodlandfarms said:
Ahhh.. I was about to ask the same. So... Lets say the loader has failed (it would be like being in float mode) you would have to raise the tractor a long ways to get the weight of the loader off the victim. Did you guys explore other methods to just relieve the loader pressure and not move the tractor?

That was my thought too. If the loader has failed, raising the tractor will not raise the loader until the tractor is way up in the air.

Treemonkey1000 · Oct 19, 2012

Might be messy but unscrewing the hydraulic lines at the lift cylinders would that allow you to lift the bucket other than bucket being honkin heavy by itself?

PoorPlowboy · Oct 19, 2012

Why not crank the engine, and lift the bucket with the joystick? If it were me under that bucket, I would be begging for it to be off of me in the most expedient method possible.