CHICAGO – In a rural health educator’s dream vision for farm country, the flat fertile landscape will be dotted with little black plastic tubes strapped to power poles at each farmstead.
The sealed cylinders look innocuous, but the contents inside are like gold for emergency responders – detailed computer-generated maps of each farm, specifying precise locations for flammable chemicals and fuels, power turnoff switches, grain bins, water supplies and livestock.
In fires, explosions, accidents and other farm emergencies, being able to quickly locate these items could prevent or reduce property damage, injuries and even deaths to farmers and rescuers.
The vision can already be seen in east-central Illinois, where a handful of “emergency action tubes” have been distributed free to farmers. Several have attached them to power poles on their land, and sponsors are working to get more farmers involved.
The idea came naturally to Amy Rademaker, a farm safety specialist and educator at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., who initiated the program. Her grandparents were farmers, and her parents still work the Moweaqua farm that has been in her family for more than 100 years.
Farming is among the most dangerous industries, but Rademaker said tragedies can be prevented “if you can identify where things are going to go up in flames.”
Rademaker locates aerial images of each farm online, then takes printouts to farmers and works with them to identify structures, wells, power sources and potential hazards. She uses a GPS software program developed by Penn State University to produce the maps and is working on getting local fire officials involved in the interviewing.
The program operates with about $10,000 in funding, most of it from the hospital.
Don and Lois Wood are among the projects’ first participants. Their 40-acre farm just north of Champaign includes corn, soybeans and feeder cattle – plus six barns, several storage sheds, crop bins and tanks for machinery fuel and heating oil.
“I think it’s a very good project,” Lois Wood said. “I hope it saves some lives.”
Michigan started a similar program about 15 years ago, with the state’s Groundwater Stewardship Program providing free tubes and an online template for farmers to develop their own emergency plans and maps. More than 3,000 emergency plans have been developed, said Allen Krizek, an educational coordinator at Michigan State University Extension.
Federal data show that more than 450 farmers or farmworkers were killed in work-related accidents in 2008, and that each year, 113 children died from farm-related injuries. Thousands more people suffer non-fatal injuries, and machinery is among the leading causes.
So far there have been no emergencies on Illinois farms with emergency action tubes. But Rademaker said two local farmers whose barns burned to the ground within the past two years have since had maps drawn and will soon post their emergency action tubes.
