Firefighters received hands on training in Monroe Monday night to help better save those trapped in grain bins.

Outstate Data of Minnesota held a demonstration with a rescue tube donated to the Pella Fire Department by Farm Credit Services of America. During the exercise, firefighters from Pella and Monroe learned how to use the circular tube to free someone trapped in a grain bin.

Two Rivers Cooperative hosted the exercise and provided the grain used to simulate a rescue situation, which involved one of their employees standing waste deep in corn in a dumpster provided by Midwest Sanitation.

Pella Fire Department Training Officer Jeremy Scott says those in attendance learned life-saving techniques and how to use the new rescue tube.

“We’ve learned how to rescue somebody out by them doing a self-rescue with buckets and then the new grain bin rescue tools that we got are phenomenal,” he says.