EDMONTON – A blistering inferno that reduced an Alberta grain elevator to embers Wednesday night will cost as much as $4 million to replace, local officials said Thursday.
When the Providence Grain elevator in Waskatenau caught fire around 4 p.m., it was almost entirely full of oats, barley, wheat and canola grown by farmers in the surrounding fields.
Smoky Lake County fire chief Scott Franchuk said the fire got so big so fast that three volunteer crews from surrounding towns didn’t even try to get it under control, and instead focused on keeping the fire from spreading to nearby houses.
“We had three or four houses that were in danger, and we had to evacuate half the town, because all the ashes and embers were falling into town,” he said Thursday afternoon.
“It also caused about 30 or 40 grass fires in the area … it’s extremely dry here, and that didn’t help us.”
Franchuk said the fire was still too hot for investigators to get near it, but he estimates damage between $3 and $4 million. The cause of the fire is not known, but foul play is not suspected.
Providence Grain Solutions CEO Milt Miller said nobody will lose their jobs as a result of the fire.
Six employees worked at the site, and Miller said the company is already working to establish a temporary office in Waskatenau. The company has other elevators and has made arrangements to send local grain there, so business will continue as usual.
“We made a long-term commitment to the Waskatenau area a long time ago, and we had a lot of good customers here,” he said. “Nobody’s losing their jobs.”
Waskatenau is 100 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.
kkleiss@thejournal.canwest.com
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