Smoke is seen billowing from the Parrish & Heimbecker terminal north of North Battleford. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Tyler Marr

TERMINAL BLAZE

Grain chaff among conveyor belts cause of terminal fire

Mar 12, 2019 | 3:48 PM

Grain chaff catching fire and burning conveyor belts is being pointed too as the cause behind a fire at a terminal north of the city Monday night.

Fire crews from North Battleford responded to the Parrish & Heimbecker grain terminal on Hamlin Road shortly after 6:10 p.m. and remained on scene until around 1 a.m.

The conveyor belts are located underneath the silo and move grain between them.

Grain chaff is being pointed to as the cause of a fire at the Parrish & Heimbecker terminal Monday night. (Tyler Marr/battlefordsNOW Staff)

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Deputy Fire Chief of Operations and Training Lindsay Holm said the below grade fire caused some challenges in their attempts to quell the flames.

He said crews had difficulties accessing the fire and were forced to fight it quite extensively from the outside to get it under control before sending people inside.

The rural location also proved problematic, forcing the department to shuttle water to the scene.

The presence of grain dust around the fire, according to Holm, did have the potential to have “catastrophic effects” like dust explosions.

“We had to be cognizant of that fighting the fire and part of that process is wetting down the dust in the area to try to prevent something like that from happening,” he said.

Fires of these type, he said, are rare and require specialized skills to not just knock down the flames but prevent them from spreading to other silos.

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tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr