A fire in a grain silo at the Farmer’s Exchange Co-op in Lake Park on Wednesday required unusual methods to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters couldn’t use water on the blaze because the grain had just been sprayed with a fumigant, a chemical that would have reacted with the water to pose an additional fire hazard.
The fire was fought with extinguishers while crews called for a semi-tanker of carbon dioxide which was used to displace the oxygen in the silo. The fire was out by 1 AM today. Co-op officials say damage was minimal because of the fast response. The cause of the fire isn’t yet known.