Feb. 9—NEAR JAMESTOWN, ND — A fire destroyed a grain elevator and small storage building Thursday, Feb. 8, about 7 miles north of Spiritwood, according to Brian Paulson, fire chief of the Jamestown Rural Fire Department.
Seven units and 20 firefighters with the Jamestown Rural Fire Department responded to 9475 26th St. SE in Stutsman County at about 4:40 a.m. Thursday to a report of a grain elevator on fire. When firefighters arrived at the scene, the grain elevator was fully involved, Paulson said.
"It had been burning for a while by the time we got there," he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Paulson said a deputy from the Office of the North Dakota Fire Marshal was expected to come to the site on Friday morning, Feb. 9.
Google maps says the fire was located in Clementsville, which was formerly a small town years ago. Paulson said the location includes a grain-handling facility.
"One farmer has some bins out there, a scale, a dryer," he said. "This farmer had the old elevator that he had purchased."
Paulson said an estimated 25,000 bushels of product were in the elevator.
He said firefighters had to prevent the fire from spreading to another building containing about 90,000 bushels of soybeans that was next to the elevator.
"We were cooling that building and trying to keep a barrier there so the heat wasn't infringing on it any more than it already had," he said. "It kind of burned through the roof in a few spots."
He said firefighters anticipated the wind speeds increasing throughout the day so they took measures to protect other structures.
"We worked on parts of the fire that the embers, when that wind did shift, wouldn't pick up and spread and drop on stuff that wasn't burnt," Paulson said.
He said firefighters had to shuttle water from the closest hydrant available to them.
He said Jamestown Rural Fire Department also requested mutual aid from the Wimbledon Fire District for help with water.
No injuries were reported. Firefighters were on scene for about 12 1/2 hours.
The American Red Cross provided refreshments for firefighters.
The Stutsman County Sheriff's Office and Jamestown Area Ambulance also responded to the scene.