JAMESTOWN – A defective bearing caused fire and smoke in five grain elevators about two miles south of Jamestown on Wednesday, Aug. 7, according to Brian Paulson, fire chief of the Jamestown Rural Fire Department.

The Jamestown Rural Fire Department responded with six units and 13 firefighters to 8311 39th St. SE in rural Jamestown at 3:15 p.m. for reports of grain elevators that were smoking or burning.

According to Paulson, a fire broke out due to a bearing defect in the conveyor leg of the grain elevator.

“From there, fires started in the elevator shaft, in the distributor at the top, in the distributor legs going down to the grain silos, and then we had sunflowers burning in five different grain silos,” he said. “We eventually dismantled different parts of the system where we had access and started running water into every part of the system and basically flooding it until we felt we had put out the spot fires. I’m confident we had put everything out.”

According to Paulson, the grain silos could not be emptied because the elevator leg was damaged by the defective bearing.

“So we had to deal with everything related to the grain silos and the product,” he said.

He said firefighters initially used water where smoke was visible.

“Then we started taking it apart to find the cause,” Paulson said. “Once we found that, we worked our way through the whole system and started taking it apart. … At one point we had open flames on top of the elevator legs. It didn’t start until we had been there for quite a while, but we started opening things up and that’s how oxygen got into the leg, into the system, and then when we introduced oxygen and heat, we had a fire up there.”

Paulson said the grain elevators varied in size and only one was full. He said the others were only partially full.

Paulson said some parts of the distribution system would need to be replaced to get it working again. He said the sunflowers in the grain elevators were damaged by fire and water.

No injuries were reported. The fire department was on site for about four hours.

The Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office also arrived at the scene.

Masaki Ova joined The Jamestown Sun as a reporter in August 2021. He grew up on a farm near Pingree, ND. He studied communications at the University of Jamestown, ND