Friday morning at 8:09 a.m., Jackson Township Fire Department responded to a call about a dust explosion at Beck’s Hybrids Seed Company, 6767 E. 276th St., Atlanta, which led to a two-alarm fire with crews from 17 departments responding.
The fire was located in a building that is used to process corncobs from waste products to a bedding product that is used for animals.
According to Jackson Fire Department Chief Jeff Muszar, there were no serious injuries, though one firefighter suffered a minor injury and was treated without hospital transport.
“What appears to have happened is that an unknown ignition source triggered a dust explosion within the grinder system,” Chief Muszar told The Reporter. “It caused a massive explosion within the building and ignited all the dust in the building. It then ignited all the hard assets within the building.”
The fire was widespread throughout the entire Beck’s warehouse.
According to Muszar, because of the amount of dust released with the explosion it created a significant fire.
“We had to get into all the nooks and crannies of the building and the air handling system to get all of the dust and fire out,” Muszar said. “It was a complicated process because literally every particle of dust catches fire. We had 16 departments assist us, including Noblesville, Westfield and Carmel.”
Muszar called it a cooperative effort involving Hamilton County, Tipton County and Madison County fire departments coming together to manage and mitigate this incident.
It took approximately three hours to get the fire under control, but crews were still on the scene in late afternoon.
The fire is still under investigation; however, it appears that the machine used to crush the cobs or a conveyer belt may have caused the fire that spread to a sophisticated dust collection system located inside the building. A drone from Hamilton County EMA was utilized throughout the fire which allowed the Incident Commanders to monitor heat conditions and target hot spots.
Photos provided