(Carroll County, GA) Over the weekend of Saturday, July 25th & Sunday, July 26th 2020 twenty three (23) members of Carroll County Fire Rescue consisting of fulltime, part-time, and volunteer Firefighters, along with EMTÂ’s and Paramedics participated in a specialized Farm Medic Training course hosted by Carroll County Fire Rescue. The 16 hour course was sponsored by the Georgia Association of Medical Services (GAEMS) with participation from local Carroll County Agribusinesses including; Carroll County Farm Bureau; President Mr. Lawrence Shadix, Agrimerica; (New Holland equipment dealer, Mr. Sam Duke), Sun South Equipment, and John Deere equipment dealer, Mr. John Denny.
The training consisted of 16 hours broken into two- eight hour blocks which included eight hours of classroom instruction conducted by instructors from the Georgia Association of Medical Services (GAEMS) and detailed equipment operations conducted by the local equipment dealers at their facilities on Saturday. The 8 hour field portion of the training was conducted on Sunday at the Carroll County/Carrollton Public Safety Center in Carrollton. This training included hands on training with actual farm & agricultural equipment. The training was divided into various work stations which included removal of victims from a tractor rollover, entanglement from a power take off shaft of a tractor, rescue from underneath a tractor mowing deck (a.k.a.bushhog), and rescue from an engulfment of grain/livestock feed bins and auger systems used on some farms to deliver livestock feeds as well as other products.
Deputy Chief Bud Benefield, class coordinator (as well as a farmer himself) said; “Agribusiness is a highly important industry to Carroll County which must be protected with Carroll being in the top ten counties for poultry and beef cattle production among Georgia’s 159 counties. Carroll County Fire Rescue is certainly committed to serving our citizens and stands united in our service to the local agribusiness community. We recognize the jobs and economic benefit to our community as a result of agribusiness. Whether it is in the delivery of fire/rescue services during times of crisis or working together with local and state agencies such as those mentioned to provide training, education, and support to fire rescue personnel, we are proud of our relationships with our agribusiness community because without agribusiness the world would have no food, no clothing or shelter”.
According to the website www.georgia.org/industries/agribusiness Agribusiness is Georgia’s leading industry with over $75 billion in economic impact to the state every year. The state leads the nation in production of chickens, peanuts, pecans, blueberries and rye. Many companies – including Pilgrim’s Pride, Chick-fil-A, Coca-Cola and Tyson – source their products directly from Georgia farms and operations.
written by: Ashley Hulsey, Carroll County
