All appeared to be business as usual on Wednesday morning at the KAAPA ethanol plant west of Aurora after an explosion Tuesday night damaged grand handling equipment.
mportant;">Aurora firefighters responded to the scene of an explosion and fire at the KAAPA ethanol plant at Aurora West Tuesday evening. Aurora Fire Chief Tom Cox said the grain dust explosion, which was on the grain elevator side of the plant, happened at about 8:45 p.m. causing what he described as “quite a bit of structural damage” to the grain handling equipment where the explosion occurred.
mportant;">When firefighters arrived on scene they also discovered a small fire in a piece of dust collection equipment, which they were able to extinguish quickly. Cox said the explosion occurred while corn was being moved from a grain bin to an outdoor pile. He said the operation was being conducted remotely so no one was in the area at the time and there were no injuries to anyone working at the facility.
The fire department responded with 15 firefighters including an ambulance crew that was dispatched as a precaution.
Cox says the State Fire Marshall's office was called immediately and an inspector was on scene last night until fire crews were dismissed at about 10:45 p.m. He said the fire marshal returned to the plant this morning accompanied by a fire marshal who specializes in grain bin fires.
The cause of the dust explosion was determined to have been due to the failure of a bearing in a grain leg.
The damage does not appear to have seriously disrupted operations at the grain elevator, as farm trucks were lined up this morning delivering grain to the plant.
