Community Update

Andersons Fire
12/18/2022

On December 18, 2022 at approximately 10:11 pm, a call was reported to Saginaw County Central Dispatch (911) of flames seen at the top of the grain storage dome at the Andersons facility on S. Hemlock Rd. The Fire Department responded and immediately requested for upgraded alarms to bring in additional resources to assist. Fire crews spent several days on scene extinguishing and stabilizing the incident. The scene was turned back over to Andersons, Inc. the afternoon of Thursday December 22, 2022. The company has begun salvage and removal efforts. While removal efforts are in progress, there will be smoldering areas that will produce some smoke in addition to likely odors in the area as the smoldering is occurring near the bottom of the pile where water cannot be directly applied. The salvage operators are typically able to extinguish the smoldering areas as they expose them and will contact the Fire Department if assistance is needed.

The dome holds 3 million bushels of grain and typically takes 6 months to remove the stored grain under normal operations.

Update - 3/10/2023

The salvage and removal of the corn from the dome continues. As of today, there is approximately 500,000 to 600,000 bushels left to remove. The salvage crews are estimating another 4 to 5 weeks to have the remaining grain removed. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has been monitoring the site and has been in contact with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure air quality does not drop to hazardous levels.

Update - 3/24/2023

Salvage and removal of the corn is still on track and is estimated to be complete in approximately 4 weeks. This estimate includes the remaining corn inside and outside of the dome. Once the grain has been removed from the site, general cleanup of the site will begin.