On October 8th, Canton Fire was honored to host a Grain Bin Rescue training course. This course was sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of St, Lawrence, Jefferson, and Lewis Counties and put on by an instructor from the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS). Canton Fire, in 2015, was the recipient of a Nationwide Insurance grant the provided us with a grain bin rescue tube and a previous iteration of this training. We were very fortunate to have this training return to St. Lawrence County and for members from multiple department to have the opportunity to train on the equipment we have. With the proliferation of grain bins for on farm storage, this equipment and training is vital.

We would like to thank Patrick Ames from Cooperative Extension for bringing this training to the North Country and to the following underwriters for supporting the training and agriculture in our area. Underwriters included Poulin Grain, Cargill, Farm Credit East, Foy Insurance Agency, Farm Bureau Lewis, Gold Star, Dairy Farmers of America, A.N. Martin Systems, AgroLiquid, Phoenix Feeds and Nutrition, and the St. Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District.

We would also like to extend our appreciation to the Hurlbut Family for providing attendees with a tour of their on farm grain bin storage and answering all the questions that the students had about the bins and their operation.