Sanborn firefighters assisted the Sheldon Fire Department at a Sheldon feed mill fire December 7.
Sheldon Fire Chief Brad Hindt reported that the Department was paged out about 8:00 p.m. to Kent Nutrition in southwestern Sheldon. Upon arrival, the firefighters found the building filled with moderate smoke, hot embers, and heavy smoke exiting the outside exhaust pipe. The sprinkler system was operating and employees were battling the fire inside a pellet cooling machine with fire extinguishers.
Sheldon’s firefighters made their way to the pellet machine on the second floor of the building and attacked the fire inside the machine with water and foam. They worked on the fire in the exhaust systems as well.
Hindt noted that at that time, the Sanborn Fire Department was called for manpower due to the fact this was going to be a slow process.
He added that firefighters and Kent employees continued to take apart the pellet machine and exhaust system and removed the burnt feed pellets from the cooling bin. The damage was confined to the one pellet machine, the exhaust system, and several pallets of paper.
Hindt reported that 29 firefighters responded to the fire and used about 3000 gallons of water and 30 gallons of foam. They were on the scene for three-and-a-half hours.
Assisting the Sheldon and Sanborn firefighters were the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team, the Sheldon Police Department and Kent employees.