Crystal City grain elevator fire ‘a frightening sight’

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This article was published 22/08/2018 (2797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A smouldering pile of debris surrounded by tilted and charred silos was all that was left Tuesday morning after a fire consumed a grain elevator in Crystal City.

In addition to demolishing the grain elevator, the fire also destroyed a local hardware store, Cudmore Bros. Hardware, and sent a man working in the elevator to hospital after he sustained burns.

The fire started just before 6 p.m. on Monday, said Mike Webber, a member of the Crystal City & District Chamber of Commerce board, when an explosion blew out the top of the elevator.

“By about 6:30 p.m. it was a raging inferno,” Webber said. “The flames were well up into the air on top of it. It was a frightening sight … something you never want to see.”

An ember drifted into town and ignited Cudmore Bros. Hardware, Webber said, approximately a couple of blocks from the elevator.

The nearby post office and local municipal office were doused with water during the height of the fire to prevent them from catching, Webber added.

“The heat was just tremendous,” he said.

A 30-year-old man was airlifted to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg after he was burned in the blaze, a STARS spokesperson said.

He is currently in stable condition.

Residents in a nearby fourplex were also evacuated, and remain evacuated due to the power being cut in the area, Webber said.

The response from the community and surrounding areas was great, Webber said, with local farmers rushing in to help.

“There is a plan in place when something like this happens for local farmers to immediately get water and bring water into the town to help … that definitely went into effect,” Webber said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many trucks with water tanks on the back of them. It was quite amazing.”

Local farmer Dan Stewart said he was in his field when he saw a big plume of smoke coming out of the town. He rushed home to grab his water trailer and headed to the scene.

“I couldn’t believe all the co-ordination that took place,” Stewart said. “The firefighters all did the best they could and it’s a shame these buildings were lost, but at least they stopped (the fire) from spreading … It was a fine group of people who were working out there last night.”

The elevator, owned by Paterson Grain, was a historic building, Webber said, and its destruction was a loss for farmers and the community alike.

“There’s a lot of people who will miss that building,” Stewart said.

“For me to haul grain (to that elevator) it’s 10 minutes, but if it’s not there anymore it’s 40 minutes. They were open all weekend for us … it was a big time saver when they were open and they were always easy to deal with. It hurts a lot.”

Paterson Grain has another elevator in town and is working on a plan to continue serving its customers in the area, said Murray Froese, director of corporate affairs with the company.

“We’ve been serving the people of Crystal City and the surrounding community for decades and we intend to continue to do that,” Froese said. “The fire is obviously a tremendous concern and a significant loss, but we do have another facility in Crystal City … and we intend to continue to serve that community.”

The cause of the fire as well as the total cost of damages have yet to be known, Froese said.

The Office of the Fire Commissioner and police are investigating.

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