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Cottage Grove's Reporter
Cottage Grove's Reporter
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ELEVATOR FIRE
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| Deerfield, Blooming Grove, McFarland and Sun Prairie firefighting units assisted Cottage Grove firefighters with the fire that took about three weeks to put out. |
Granary Fire Burned For 3 Weeks
Last Updated: January 10, 2012
A fire at the Landmark Cooperative grain elevator in the 4000 block of County Highway N took firefighters more than three weeks to put out.
The fire's cause and damage costs are undetermined at this time and Cottage Grove Fire Captain Tom Banigan says he is unsure if it will ever be known how it started. He said that much of the grain was saved and stored in another area onsite but will likely not garner market value.
The fire, which started on December 16 was finally put on on January 7. "We couldn't get at it," said Banigan about the fire that started in the 6x4 foot tunnels that run under the granary's giant silos. Landmark crews worked the entire time to empty about 450,000 bushels of corn grain from the elevators in an attempt to get at the fire that spread through the grain that filled the tunnel system.
According to Banigan, the fire continued to spread through the dry corn and grain dust that filled the tunnel area. It's a small and unsafe area for a firefighter to get into, he said. Workers emptied the grain with two large vacum rigs, a tractor auger and by cutting 1x2 foot holes at the silos base to empty the grain.
An insurance company from Texas is conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire. "It's a very unique situation," said Banigan who added that they used mutiple methods to fight it including attempting to flood the tunnels with water and using carbon dioxide to snuff out the burning grain.
Fire departments from Sun Prairie, Deerfield, Blooming Grove and McFarland came to the assistance of the Cottage Grove firefighters during the three weeks.
The tunnels that run under the silos are used to transfer grain from one silo to another, said Cottage Grove Fire Department Representative Bob King who added that the grain and dust found in the tunnel areas tend to be dry and easy to ignight.