Recently, two firefighters work on Champion Farms, an institution dating back 200 years. Nathan Doody and Tyler Memory volunteer for the farm as their day jobs, both seasoned veterans in their respective fire departments by this point. It's business as usual for the two until one of the men accidentally drops a piece of equipment in a manure tanker.
Naturally, they try to retrieve the tool. However, the man passes out and falls in the tanker, overcome by the fumes. The other firefighter frantically attempts to save his co-worker. Unfortunately, he also falls victim to the same intense smell. Tragically, the two firefighters pass away from the incident.
Now, experts review the tragedy and tackle some of the reasons it happened. One obvious reason is the manure produces toxic gases inside the tanker. Dan Neenan, director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety dives into some detail. Specifically, he singles out hydrogen sulfide as the primary suspect that took the lives of the two firefighters. "Hydrogen sulfide is a gas that is associated with manure pits. At low concentrations, it can cause eye irritations and at high concentrations, it can quickly cause loss of consciousness and death," he says.
Experts Ponder How to Avoid This Manure Incident
It's easy to wonder how the firefighters and other farms could avoid this tragedy. Frankly, farmers may not have the proper tools to properly retrieve the equipment they lost. Moreover, they might've felt like they could handle the situation on their own, despite the intense manure fumes.
Neenan argues that the two firefighters should've let authorities handle it with their toolset so nothing bad happens. "It's your automatic reaction," he explains. "You want to try and go help them, and in reality, the best thing to do is to step back and call 911. It's counter-intuitive, but you're no help if you go in and become incapacitated,"
Additionally, it's important that hydrogen sulfide and manure in general isn't deadly in a field setting. Dr. Jason Oliver from Cornell University specializes in agriculture and life science. He emphasizes that it's particularly harmful in concentrated, confined settings. "You might smell manure when it's applied on a field, but you're not anywhere near a hazardous, or even, a risky level of emissions at that point. These kinds of accidents are really related to a confined space," he explains. "So, it's entering a tank; going down into a below-grade pit. It's really the farmworkers and folks handling manure that are most at risk."
