Farmers, Firefighters Partner on Hazards Maps Without even thinking, Joe Ortner rattles off a list of items on his family's dairy farm that could kill you: 1,000 gallons of diesel, 500 gallons of gas, cleaning chemicals in the milking parlor, oil and lubricant for repair work and a 6-foot-deep manure pond in which you could drown. He pauses and adds three bulls to the list. Agriculture remains one of the nation's most dangerous professions; accidents on farms kill hundreds and injure thousands each year. While the deadly blast at a Texas fertilizer plant last month was a sharp reminder of the risks posed by agricultural chemicals, tractors, stored grain, animals and power lines are threats, too. To help rescuers reach people quickly and safely, a handful of Wisconsin farmers - Ortner included - have been working with researchers and firefighters on an online program that maps farm hazards. The recently completed pilot project built upon earlier work done with paper maps, and researchers at the National Farm Medicine Center hope the project can expand, with the online program eventually being used nationwide. The concept is simple: Farmers enter information into a password-protected database. A Quick Response, or QR, code is posted on the farm's mailbox or in another prominent location. Arriving firefighters scan the code with their smartphones or tablets and receive information about stored chemicals and other hazards, where to disconnect power and potential sources of water. Firefighters responding to emergencies face the same risks as farmers themselves, said Jerry Minor, chief of the Pittsville Fire Department in central Wisconsin. His department has worked for decades with the nearby National Farm Medicine Center to train rural firefighters. "We don't have a lot of incidents on farms," Minor said. But when we do, they pose a real high threat to rescue personnel because of unfamiliarity with farms and all the hazards that are present. State law requires many industries and public places to let firefighters in for inspections, but most farms are not part of that list. The program that Minor's department is developing with the National Farm Medicine Center helps bridge that gap. Farm mapping projects aren't new. An Illinois program creates paper maps of farms and places them in tubes secured to power poles. Similar projects exist in Michigan and Pennsylvania. "The downside to that is, it's readable to anyone who comes along," said Dr. Matt Keifer, director of the National Farm Medicine Center. But we can secure the QR code. Another advantage to having the information in a database is that firefighters can access it before they reach the farm. They might scan a farm's QR code from a manual kept in their truck, or eventually, tie the information into the dispatch system, so they receive it as soon as a call comes in, Keifer said. Ortner, 50, is one of about a half-dozen farmers who have used the program so far. He said it would have been helpful for firefighters to have that kind of quick access to information in 1989, when the house on his 700-acre farm outside Pittsville caught fire. The line carrying power to the house burned and fell away from the building, but remained live. Firefighters had to figure out how to shut off the power before tackling the blaze. The house was a complete loss, Ortner said, but he also knows he was lucky the fire didn't spread to fuel barrels sitting 60 to 70 feet away.