UPDATE: Sheldon, Iowa — Five fire departments helped to put out a fire at a Sheldon feed mill on Wednesday afternoon.
According to Sheldon Fire Chief Brad Hindt, at about 2:20 p.m., the Sheldon Fire Company was called to the report of smoke seen from the roof of what used to be the Purina Mill — and is now called the Sheldon Hull Coop Feed Mill on West 8th Street, near the railroad tracks.
The chief says the fire department found light smoke coming from the roof. The manager thought that the fire was out, so he and two firefighters went in to investigate. While inside, the smoke exiting the roof vent increased and became very turbulent, says Hindt. At that point, firefighters evacuated the building. All employees were accounted for. Chief Hindt says additional fire departments were called in from Sanborn and Boyden for manpower, and from Orange City and Sioux Center for their ladder trucks. O’Brien County Emergency Management was on-scene and deployed a drone to check the roof to see where the smoke was escaping. They found all the smoke and heat were escaping from the exhaust vent. Hindt says that once resources were on scene and set up, a coordinated fire attack plan started with the help of the plant manager. The fire was contained to a feed pellet cooler, the exhaust system, and a storage bin.
According to Chief Hindt, groups of firefighters made entry into the building with charged handlines to extinguish any possible fire, and cooled the pellets as they were transferred to the load out and brought outside. He says it was a long and time-consuming process. When the pellets couldn’t be removed by the auger system, Hindt says firefighters had to access the cooler and dump the remining product on the floor which was then hauled out by payloader.
He says the cause of the fire is under investigation. No injuries were reported.
He tells us Sheldon firefighters were back in service at 7:30 p.m.
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Original story posted Wednesday, July 30th:
Sheldon, Iowa — Details are few at this hour, but firefighters from several communities were asked to come to Sheldon this Wednesday to help firefighters put out a fire at the old Purina mill, which was recently purchased by Hull Coop.
The address is 105 West 8th Street in Sheldon. The fire call went out about 2:20 on Wednesday afternoon.
We’ll have the details as they become available.
KIWA Staff Photo
