Local firefighters monitor fire at Crystal pellet bin

Hillsboro firefighters monitored a fire at the American Crystal Sugar Co. sugarbeet processing plant for nearly 11 hours Wednesday.
No injuries were reported and ACSC was still assessing damages Thursday morning. The cause of the fire was still being investigated, a company spokesman said.
An employee called 911 for help at 7:33 a.m. to put out a blaze that had started in a pellet mill. ACSC spokesman Jeff Schweitzer said the mill had “failed” in the early morning hours and fire spread first to a pellet cooler and then to pellet bin No. 3.
Heat and pressure are used to form pellets from a fibrous by-product of the sugar beet processing. The pellets are sold for livestock feed, Schweitzer said.
Fire chief Jamie Reed said the smoldering fire was “enclosed” in the No. 3 pellet bin, one of three such bins at the Hillsboro plant. Reed said workers told him the bins can hold 4,000 to 5,000 tons of pellets. At the time of the fire, the bin reportedly contained between 1,700 and 1,800 tons of pellets.
Firefighters used a thermal imager to help locate hot spots inside the round metal bin, which measures about 60 to 70 feet wide, Reed estimated. He said the equipment made fighting the fire easier since firemen didn’t have to wait for flare-ups, they could anticipate them.
Reed said the firefighters’ job was to monitor the fire and apply water as needed to keep the heat damage to the bin at a minimum.
Meanwhile plant workers hauled truck loads of the smoldering pellets from the bin and dumped the piles on a concrete slab to cool. Reed related the consistency of the smoldering pellet to compacted corn silage.
The tedious job proved dusty and smoky, Reed commented. Six firefighters originally responded to the emergency call and four remained on scene until about 6 p.m.
Reed said ACSC workers were still cleaning at the site when firefighters left.