With a bang heard early Wednesday morning, October 6, the Gold Eagle Cooperative's grain elevator on Madison Avenue in Clarion experienced a fire in the mechanical housing atop the elevator.
Gold-Eagle Manager Chris Boshart explained the cause of the fire. “We had a motor get hot and melted the plastic and rubber components at the top of one of our grain receiving legs at the Clarion elevator.”
Fire and law enforcement crews responded quickly. "The call came out about 8:20," said Sheriff Jason Schluttenhofer on the scene. "We came out and shut the section down, and the Clarion Fire Department was able to get the fire out on top of the leg of the elevator grain bin."
Although traffic and pedestrians, including kids on their way to school, were routed away from Madison Ave for about half an hour as a precaution, the road was open again shortly after 9 am.
Boshart added, “The fire only damaged the motor, which we replaced with a new one. We were back up and receiving grain after about 3 hours of downtime.” He also thanked the first responders for their quick response and assistance.
