The Brabant-Noord fire brigade is at the forefront with a special technical hoist team. That team comes into action, among other things, when larger animals are in need. Pigs and cows that have ended up in a manure pit or horses that have maneuvered themselves into impossible positions. And that is not without danger.
André van Delst is the post commander of the technical towing team of the fire station in Boekel. Such a team is equipped with a special car with a hoist. There is also practice on situations with large animals. It is still vivid in his mind: “Our first call was with four sows that had fallen into a slurry pit. Those animals were in a terrible panic.”
Technical hoist teams are most often confronted with animals that end up in the manure pit. “These are often accidents. Then a cow has pulled off the grid with her hooves, for example. Or pigs that are sniffing around all day, lift the grid out with their snouts. Those kinds of accidents.”
“The urge to jump into such a slurry pit is very strong.”
The gases released in such a slurry pit are life-threatening. It is hydrogen sulphide, explains André. This is especially dangerous in higher concentrations. André: “Then you can no longer smell it, but it is very deadly.” Never just go into the slurry pit to save an animal. “We first measure the gases with special meters to determine whether we have a safe work situation. Otherwise, we use breathing air, with a mask.”
It sounds logical, but for the farmer and the firefighters who arrive first, it is often difficult to wait for the tow truck team to arrive. “The urge to jump in is very strong,” says André. “But the danger is much greater.” The message is therefore clear: “We always tell the commander on duty: don’t go into the well yourself. And make sure that the farmer doesn’t jump into the well either.” The latter is still not enough. “It is their job, or their hobby that they see drowning before their eyes. They are careful with it, I understand that.”
“The unpredictability is what makes it dangerous.”
And then it’s up to the fire brigade to try to get those animals out of the pit alive again. “Vulture is a mass that always works against you, it’s much thicker than water,” he says. “And then you are working under the grids of the well”, he outlines the situation. “We are allowed a maximum of twenty meters into the slurry cellar and then extra space has to be made to escape. Because you work with animals, in a small corridor that is filled with slurry. The unpredictability is what makes it dangerous.”
René Hoezen, from the technical towing team at the fire station in Berlicum, also has a similar story. “The entire floor of a pigsty had collapsed. Forty pigs swimming around in that well, half drowning. Then you think: how are we going to do this?”
“Then two hundred kilos will come at you.”
At least keep a cool head. “But you see, those animals are just panicked. You can see it in their eyes. One wants to flee, the other in the defense. And then two hundred kilos come at you. Then you have nothing to say.”
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