If you’re a frequent traveller on highway seven in Saskatchewan you’ve seen the large Providence Grain Solutions grain handling operation at Marengo, Sask.
Unfortunately, on Thursday night, Kindersley, Eatonia, Kerrobert, and Oyen fire departments were dispatched to a large fire at the elevator. The village of Marengo and surrounding rural municipality of Milton were evacuated.
The elevator serves a large portion of the west central and east central areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta, respectively. The company has other elevator locations at Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., Crossfield, Alta., Viking, Alta., Stoughton, Sask., and Winnipeg, Man.
The Marengo elevator had a licensed capacity of just under 28 thousand tonnes, according to the Canadian Grain Commission, and is located on a CN rail line.
Woke up to some texts with these pictures…
These are Marengo elevator ?? pic.twitter.com/pLpNJgeY4W— Kresten Jorgenson (@RagenKajen) October 9, 2020
No more Marengo Elevator pic.twitter.com/IpNIVkUZp2
— Craig Bandura (@saskfarmer1986) October 9, 2020
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Not many words to describe that one. What a crazy night. pic.twitter.com/GckU1W8BcB
— Cody Norris (@norrcody13) October 9, 2020
There’s been no word yet on the cause of the fire, or where it started within the elevator, but details of the scene were published in a Facebook post by Kindersley Fire Department’s fire chief Ron Hope. The dispatch message came through at 10:45 pm that night, and by 11:23 pm, the Kindersley Fire department units arrived on scene, to be joined by surrounding aforementioned departments.
The building approximately 30 metres away from the elevator is an ag chem storage warehouse. Managers were able to provide detailed information on classes of chemicals contained in the building, as well as propane bullets on the property.
An update from Milt Miller, CEO of Providence Grain Solutions, reports that the elevator will be closed until further notice, that producers in the area who have contracts for October or November delivery dates will be contacted, and those who had recently delivered to the elevator will also be contacted, once the office can be safely opened.