The Banks Volunteer Fire Department received a $5,000 grant from DuPont Pioneer to be used for rescue equipment.

The grant for Banks will specifically used to provide the fire department with the tools necessary to help rescue farmers in the event that they are pinned under a tractor.

“In addition to tractor roll-over rescues, the fire department will be able to use the equipment for vehicle or other entrapment emergencies, so the whole community will benefit,” Leonard Kuydendall said.

Jake DuBose, assistant fire chief said that the new equipment will enhance the firefighters’ abilities to extricate a victim in a car crash or other entrapment emergencies.

“We can immediately begin the rescue of a patient instead of having to wait for another agency to bring the tools to the scene of an emergency,” DuBose said.

Dubose explained that the airbags are not only beneficial for lifting flipped tractors, but they will be assistance to many other incidents.

“They are not just for agriculture incidents,” Dubose said. “The air bags are for lifting any object that someone is trapped under due to the fact that they are able to slide in to a small space and expand when filled with air and lift the object off of the victim.”

DuPont Pioneer is the world’s leading developer and supplier of advanced plant genetics, providing high quality seeds to farmers in more than 90 countries.

Pioneer makes contributions to community-based organizations on behalf of the business and employees. Consideration for outreach grants are given to communities where Pioneer representatives, employees and customers live and work and that support quality-of-life initiatives to create an improved, sustainable lifestyle for people worldwide.

“These rescue airbags will not just benefit our department but the entire county by being the second set of rescue air bags in the county,” Dubose said.

“They will be an asset to every citizen of the county and the Banks Community.”