Corn stored in bin at New Vision Co-op’s Mountain Lake location burns, fire departments empty most of its contents
* Update – An e-mail interview with New Vision Co-op General Manager Frank McDowell provided answers to questions related to fire in the corn bin at the cooperative’s Mountain Lake location. According to McDowell, the 350,000-bushel capacity bin originally had in it approximately 280,000 bushels, of which cooperative employees had removed a large number of bushels.
As McDowell explains, “The Mountain Lake Fire Chief and Assistant Chief were called to the site Saturday (January 10) around 10 a.m. to plan the fire suppression action. They mobilized the Mountain Lake pumper truck and called in the area department water trucks necessary to keep enough water ahead of the pumper truck in order to be effective on the fire and efficient for the firefighters. I think they started applying water through the primary pumper hose to the fire around noon and stopped around 2:30 p.m.-3 p.m.”
Continuing his explanation of the situation, McDowell noted that, “After the primary hose was shut down, the firefighters used a secondary (smaller, more mobile) hose to flush out bin openings, as well as extinguish small cinders on the ground, etc. I left around 5:15 p.m. on Saturday. I believe some of the water trucks had already been released by the chief, but some were still on site. I think about half were gone at this time and half remained to pump out their last water load.”
McDowell lauded Mountain Lake Fire Chief Brian Janzen, as the Mountain Lake firefighters and firefighters from the assisting area departments (Butterfield, Odin, Ormsby, St. James and Windom), stating the level of professionalism was, “AWESOME! Very professional, safe, helpful and no drama. The community should be very proud of this group. I cannot say enough good things about them.”
As far as the status of the integrity of the steel bin itself, the question remains, as of yet, unable to be answered. “The first step toward this answer is getting the bin emptied out, which should occur by this Friday (January 16),” spelled out McDowell. “After that, we will need to get a bin representative on site to inspect it to determine if it is salvageable and if the repairs necessary to place it back in service are cost effective versus replacement. The answer to this question is probably four-to-six weeks in the future.”
* Original Story – The scorched brown exterior of the 350,000-bushel capacity steel grain bin with at the Mountain Lake elevator location of New Vision Co-op , located east of the city, is a sign of the combustion taking place inside – telegraphing the fact that the corn inside was burning. Cooperative employees had noticed a problem in the bin over the course of the past month.
The moisture from the corn stored inside the bin was contained within its walls, eventually creating heat – enough heat to cause the combustion, igniting the grain, causing it to smolder and burn and, in turn, discolor the bin’s metal. It is unknown at this time how many bushels were stored in the container.
Shortly after noon on Saturday, January 10, the Mountain Lake Fire Department was called to the site to deal with the situation, an existing problem New Vision personnel had been handling for the past couple of days. A large amount of the burning and damaged grain had already been excavated from inside the bin and piled on elevator property.
However, the situation escalated on Saturday, sparking the necessary assistance of firefighting professionals. The goal – empty the bin of the burning corn so as to not have the storage facility collapse. In addition to the Mountain Lake Fire Department, tanker trucks and firefighting personnel came to the location from Butterfield, Odin, Ormsby, St. James and Windom.
The firefighters were on the scene until the smoldering corn in the bin was extinguished and the bulk of the damaged grain hauled away.
On the scene to observe the process was New Vision Co-op General Manager Frank McDowell.
