Midwest Fire Customers Converge on Scene to Battle Grain Elevator Fire
LUVERNE, MN February 21, 2018- During a nearly three-day blaze caused by re-flash, 58 fire departments from areas surrounding Northrop, Minn., aided in combating the fire by volunteering their apparatus and manpower. More than 20 of the responding departments utilized equipment from Midwest Fire Equipment & Repair Company (Midwest Fire).
“Every day our team works diligently to build firefighting apparatus that will be used to protect communities all over the United States and Canada,” said Midwest Fire CEO and Owner Sarah Atchison. “Unfortunately, this fire was very near to us. We never want something as horrible as this fire to occur, but it gives us great comfort knowing that 26 of our apparatus were there on-site providing aid to extinguish this blaze. We thank God no one was hurt and that when called upon, the Midwest Fire apparatus helped our local heroes get home safely. In the history of our company, this is the most of our apparatus ever assembled to combat a large fire. We are thankful, when called upon, our equipment did exactly what we created them to do.”
Just before noon on Thursday, December 28th, 2017, an explosion caused by grain dust igniting took place at the LB Pork grain bin in Northrop, Minn. Three local fire departments initially succeeded in suppressing the fire after several hours. At 5:45 the following morning, the building re-flashed and was fully engulfed upon arrival. Response from the numerous fire departments lasted 62 hours from start to finish in temperatures as low as -16 without wind chill. Nearly four million gallons of water were pumped into the fire to suppress and control the situation. There were no significant injuries during the initial explosion or the following re-flash.
ABOUT MIDWEST FIRE:
Midwest Fire Equipment & Repair Company has been manufacturing high-quality fire tankers and pumpers since 1987. We work directly with our customers, never through dealers, to keep costs down and communication consistent during the entire sales and manufacturing process. By creating long-term relationships with our customers, we are able to help devise state-of-the-art approaches to meet each department’s needs. We take pride in our work and our ability to produce some of the highest quality, most innovative tankers and pumpers on the market.
