A Taylorville Memorial Foundation grant is helping local firefighters with grain bin entrapments. Taylorville Fire has responded to three grain bin emergency rescues in the past two years and one of those resulted in a fatality. 24 firefighters from the Taylorville Fire Department and its mutual aid districts enrolled in grain bin rescue certification classes through the Illinois Fire Service Institute. 

Taylorville Memorial Foundation has donated $15,000 in a community health grant to allow the fully trained firefighters to be fully equipped. The grant provided equipment for three rope rescue kits, 10 personal kits for rescuers, as well as a battery-powered cut-off saw for cutting into a grain bin and three battery-powereds light towers to illuminate inside the bin, top of the bin, and the ground outside of the bin.  The grant also covers the cost of two MSA Safety Company Altair 4x gas monitors, which allow rescuers in the bin and outside the bin to measure gas levels simultaneously.

The grant is provided through the foundation’s board-directed Community Health Grant Program, which launched in 2021 to assist with funding health-related projects in Christian County.  Raedena Ryan, the foundation’s executive director says she is thrilled. “Taylorville Memorial Hospital is a community hospital serving a rural population with needs that are often very specific to the work that occurs on a farm or agricultural production site.  We are proud to offer this assistance to our local firefighters, who will use this equipment in combination with their expertise to save lives.”