[August 25, 2011] Fire destroys portion of Eldred, Minn., elevator Tweet Aug 25, 2011 (Grand Forks Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- ELDRED, Minn. -- A fire marshal will investigate the cause of an early morning fire that destroyed the main elevator of Farmers Elevator Co. of Eldred. The fire, which was reported at about 2 a.m., leveled the main elevator that was built in 1958, according to Dan Grunewald, manager. "Flames must have been shooting 50 feet out of the top when I got here," he said. "There must have been an explosion, because it blew out the front driveway door." The elevator, which was full, contained about 150,000 bushels of wheat and 15,000 bushels of soybeans. It took firefighters about two hours to bring it under control, according to Richard Rock, fire chief of the Crookston Fire Department. Eldred is about 10 miles south of Crookston. Fire departments from Climax, Fisher, Mentor and Crookston responded. "Our biggest challenge was water supply," Rock said. An estimated 80,000 gallons of water was used. Crews continued to spray water on two of four adjacent bins that contain about 50,000 bushels of grain each. A large track hoe arrived on the scene at about 7:30 am to knock down the burned elevator, to help prevent the fire from spreading, according to Rock. Another challenge for firefighters was three LP gas tanks and an adjacent building used to store chemicals. Firefighters were able to move the materials to a safe distance away and to keep them cool with water. When Grunewald arrived on the scene, he rescued the business computer and other equipment from the office, which also was destroyed. "I didn't waste time," he said. "I got in and grabbed the computer and got the hell out of there. I didn't know if there would be another explosion." The cause of the fire has not been determined. A Minnesota state fire marshal and an insurance adjuster were expected to arrive this morning. Grunewald said members of the independent farmer-owned business plan to rebuild. "There's a lot of support here to rebuild," he said, adding that crews hoped to salvage as much grain as possible, but they weren't sure how much that would be. The elevator, which currently handles about 2.5 million bushels of grain annually, originally was built in 1917. It was expanded in 1948 and 1958. ___ (c)2011 Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.) Visit Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.) at www.grandforksherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]