FAIRFAX — A fire that followed a huge explosions destroyed the Farmers Grain and Supply Co-op in Fairfax Wednesday morning.

No one was hurt.

Estimated damages have been placed at $1.1 million by elevator manager Gerald Dummer.

Cause of the explosions and fire is still undetermined.

DUMMER said at the scene of the fire Wednesday that he believed a rock or small piece of metal had mixed in with some grain in the grinder and threw off a spark that caused the explosion.

This morning, another spokesman for the elevator said that “all we know is that there was an explosion.”

Persons at the scene indicated that there were two explosions, blowing the top off the building, followed by the fire.

AL DITTMER of Dittmer Oil Co., near the elevator said that the second explosion seemed to blow the top off the building 10 feet into the air.

“Then it was a big ball of fire,” he said.

Art Schroeder, an employee at the elevator, said that when he heard the explosion,”It sounded sort of like a bomb.”

“I just didn’t know what it was until somebody started yelling,’Fire, fire.’ I was the last one to get out.”

CREWS were cleaning up debris near the elevator this morning.

An elevator spokesman indicated that some corn from a southeast storage area apparently will be saved.

“An auger will be set up today to get some of the grain caught in the middle out,” Jeff Bielke, dispatcher at the Fairfax Fire Department said this morning.

However, most of the 100,000bushels of grain in the 270,000 bushel capacity elevator were lost.

A meeting was scheduled for 3:30 p.m. today by the board of director to discuss the future of the 15-year-old elevator.

THE EXPLOSION occurred 10:50 a.m. Wednesday.

When the fire started, Dummer ran back into the office looking for an employee he thought was still in the building.

After seeing the employee outside, Dummer grabbed a few papers off his desk, threw them into the vault and shut it.

There were fears this morning that the records contained inside the vault may be lost. Smoke was coming from inside the vault, and officials were worried1 that fire may have destroyed its contents.

Bielke indicated that a fire crew was sent out at 7 a.m. to try to extinguish a fire surrounding the co-op’s vault.

AFTER WEDNESDAY’S explosion, the elevator was engulfed in flames within five minutes, ac-cording to one eye witness, Al Dittmer.

Firemen from seven towns hosed down buildings in the area to keep them protected from sparks that were blowing in the wind.

Heat from the blaze caused paint

on an office building at Dittmer Oil to peel, and the fire was blamed for numerous grass fires in the area.

Three area homeowners, ac-cording to Bielke, had to take out garden hoses to put out fires that began on their roofs from sparks from the blazes.

FIRE FIGHTERS brought water from the city reserve tank three blocks away.

“Farmers themselves were hauling water from the reserve tank to the fire,” Bielke said.

The elevator, he said, was constructed entirely of wood, so when it caught fire, it just took off.

New Ulm Daily Journal

June 24, 1976