Sampson Community College is set to become home to one of North Carolina’s first dedicated agricultural rescue training facilities after receiving a $1.62 million state appropriation that college officials say will strengthen emergency response capabilities across the region.
The funding will allow SCC officials to construct an AgRescue Training Center complete with specialized rescue simulations, classrooms and training equipment designed to prepare firefighters, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement officers and other first responders for emergencies unique to agricultural settings.
Amanda Bradshaw, vice president of Workforce Development and Continuing Education, unveiled the project during a recent presentation to the college’s Board of Trustees, describing the appropriation as the culmination of months of planning and collaboration.
Bradshaw said she first learned the funding might become available after speaking with the office of Sen. Brent Jackson on the opening day of the legislative session. Rather than celebrating early, she closely monitored the proposal as it moved through the legislative process.
“I sat on it for a few weeks and stayed low-key,” Bradshaw told trustees Tuesday. “I didn’t get real excited until it actually happened. This is big for us, but I don’t think it’s just big for the community college. This is big for our community and our region.”
Agriculture remains Sampson County’s largest industry, and Bradshaw said the need for specialized rescue training has continued to grow as first responders increasingly encounter emergencies involving modern farming operations.
In a follow-up interview, Bradshaw explained that agricultural rescue encompasses a wide range of emergency situations, from grain entrapments to livestock incidents and injuries involving heavy farm machinery.
“We have a lot of different scenarios that can happen,” Bradshaw said. “Whether someone is working with livestock, row crops or equipment, we’ve been working with our local integrators, our fire departments and EMS to understand the types of injuries they’re seeing when they’re responding to farms and agricultural properties.”
Jim DeMay, dean of Public Safety at SCC, said the program is designed specifically for emergency responders rather than farmers.
“What we’re trying to do is teach our first responders how to respond to incidents in agricultural settings,” DeMay said. “Whether it’s an entanglement in a power take-off, an auger, a combine, a corn snapper or any of the equipment you find on a farm, they have to solve those problems. We’re giving them the ability to train on those situations before they happen.”
The training will lead to technical rescue certifications that firefighters and other public safety professionals can add to their existing credentials. Volunteer firefighters will also gain specialized knowledge to better serve their communities.
The college has spent more than a year researching similar programs while working alongside institutions in South Carolina, Kansas and Wisconsin, as well as local emergency response agencies.
“We’ve been working with a few different organizations over the past year talking through what this could look like,” Bradshaw said during the trustees meeting. “Quite frankly, until we got this phone call, we’d done as much as we could do with instructional supply money.”
Unlike mobile agricultural rescue trailers currently used by some institutions, SCC’s facility will be a permanent training site built specifically for North Carolina’s agricultural industry.
Bradshaw clarified that while Clemson University and a handful of other institutions operate mobile agricultural rescue units, permanent training campuses are largely found in the Midwest, where agriculture dominates the landscape.
“Most of the facilities around us are smaller mobile units,” Bradshaw said. “They help responders understand the concepts, but they’re not exactly what someone is going to encounter in a real-life situation. When you get into the Midwest, you start seeing permanent campuses because agriculture is such a large part of those communities.”
She noted that North Carolina agriculture presents different challenges than those found in Midwestern states.
“The equipment they’re using is different because the crops are different than what we’re use to here on the East Coast,” Bradshaw explained.
The project will include approximately 12 hands-on rescue training scenarios designed to simulate real emergencies. Among them will be grain entrapment exercises using donated feed bins and grain silos from local agricultural companies.
“Many of our public safety personnel didn’t grow up on farms,” Bradshaw pointed out. “Some of these situations are the first time they’ve ever seen them when they happen. Our goal is to give them the opportunity to train over and over to build that muscle memory before an actual emergency.”
In addition to the outdoor training grounds, the project will include a new facility featuring indoor and outdoor classrooms to support both practical exercises and classroom instruction.
The center is being developed in partnership with Sampson County Emergency Management, local fire departments, EMS agencies and other public safety organizations.
DeMay said firefighters will be the primary participants initially because they perform the technical rescue component of agricultural emergencies. Future plans include awareness- and operations-level courses for EMS personnel, law enforcement officers and other responders who may arrive before specialized rescue teams.
“We’re trying to prepare today for tomorrow’s emergencies,” DeMay said. “That’s what we strive to do every day.”
College officials envision the facility becoming a regional destination for agricultural rescue training, serving departments throughout eastern North Carolina rather than just Sampson County.
“We’re really looking to be a regional training site,” DeMay said. “This is a specialty area that fits who we are. We have instructors who live here, work here and understand agriculture. We want people from surrounding counties to come train here, too.”
Bradshaw said the college is also collaborating with a Midwest nonprofit organization specializing in agricultural rescue curriculum, with representatives scheduled to visit SCC in January. The partnership will help develop coursework tailored to North Carolina’s agricultural landscape while contributing to national best practices.
She believes the project has the potential to become a model for other community colleges and training institutions across the country.
“We hope this becomes a best practice for institutions that look like us,” Bradshaw said. “They’ll be able to ask what we learned, how we made it work, and we’ll be able to help guide them.”
Bradshaw credited the project’s success to the combined support of the General Assembly, the college’s Board of Trustees, instructors and community partners.
“Without the funding, without the instructors, without the partnerships, without the support from our board, this doesn’t work,” she said. “All of those pieces came together at just the right time, and we’re very thankful for the opportunity to do this here in Sampson County.”
Once construction is complete, SCC plans to host a public ribbon-cutting ceremony before the first training exercises begin, marking what college leaders believe will be a significant advancement for agricultural and public safety training throughout North Carolina.