Date: September 8, 2017
Location: Primghar, Iowa (USA)
Address: 375 3rd Street SW, 51245
Type: Dust Fire
Fuel: Grain Dust
Industry: Grain Distribution (Agriculture)
Equipment: No Details
Company: Nicholson & Edwards Grain Co Inc.
Database Incidents: None Recorded
Loss: No Injuries
Capital Cost: $1 million
Status: Open
Confirmation: Unconfirmed
Company Description:
According to its profile on Bloomberg, Nicholson & Edwards Grain Co Inc. was founded in 1956 in Primghar, Iowa. Its line of business is buying and distributing grain, dry beans, soybeans, and inedible beans. It presently has seven employees and is continuing to rebuild after the 2017 fire.
Incident Description:
On September 17, 2018, NWest Iowa reported that a Primghar, Iowa grain distributor was back in business after a September 8, 2017 fire that caused an estimated $1 million in damage.
The incident destroyed the nearly 80-foot-tall wooden head house of the grain elevator, where the office area was located. Two 50,000-bushel bins were damaged in addition to other structures, resulting in lost storage space for about 200,000 bushels overall.
The company owners said that enough storage capacity remained for them to make it through the past summer, so there was no interruption in business. They also renovated a steel grain bin to turn it into a new office building to replace the one that was lost in the fire.
The company started operating out of its new office on Sept. 11 — a year and three days after the fire.
In its coverage of the actual fire, the Sioux City Journal reported that Primghar Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department was received a call about flames in the top of the grain elevator at around 8:08 p.m. Upon arrival, they also found the head drives of a vertical conveyor system on fire.
One of the owners and an employee retrieved as many records as they could before the fire destroyed the office. Fire crews poured 350,000 gallons of water on the flames, working until 4:30 a.m. to contain it while protecting nearby houses. They returned throughout the early part of the following week to douse hot-spots.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was undetermined, although the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune reported that the Primghar Fire Chief suspected that machinery may have overheated. With the remains of the grain elevator demolished to complete putting out the fire, there was no evidence to make an official determination.
Sources:
NWest Iowa
Sioux City Journal
Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune