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Central Michigan potato farm destroyed

R

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member
Norman Crooks Potato farm in suffering a catastrophic fire to their facilities. 12 departments responding. Just a few miles from us, our local FD would be the lead department. With the winds we're having fighting it must be horrendous.
Local news item WOOD TV
 
Think you are right Randy. Breaks your heart. Know how hard farmers work to get a facility & farm like that - only to loose it all in a few hours.
 
Ya,Greg Perkins burned out a few years ago too. Lost all the big tractors in the fire,his wife died of cancer,when it rains it pours. I went to his auction this spring.
 
Pardon me for asking, but since I am not familiar with large operations such as that, just what all was inside those warehouses? Judging by the video, they must have been several years old and likely had wood framing, and no firewalls between each unit, but it is hard to grasp that much combustible material being inside.
 
Okay, I admit it,I don't know nothin' 'bout no potato farming.

However, the area where I grew up in Northeast Ohio used to be a pretty big potato growing area. The most prosperous potato farmer in the area had a huge quonset style, earthen banked storage barn where he kept much of his harvest.

The barn was sealed at the end of harvest, and nitrogen gas was injected into the building to slow down the ripening (rotting) of the stored potatoes.

I have no idea if that is/was common, nor do I know if anyone still does it, but I would think that the nitrogen would be a pretty good fire inhibitor.


Tom in TN
 
farm i used to work on in the UK had a fire in their potato storage sheds too... took ages for it to be extinguished completely... the worst part was the foam insulation burning and the black toxic fumes from that...
 
My Uncle's one storage caught fire over the holiday season many years ago , it was a 80 x 200 dug into a hillside with a half round top roof and for insulation there were five layers of STRAW . They were away when it started and before anybody saw it it was really cooking by the time the fire dept. got there . Water was not a problem as the storage sat fifty feet away from one of the irrigation ponds and there was like seven dept. there pouring water on it . When all was said and done and it came time for the clean up we had BOILED , Baked Mashed and fried taters . We did manage to salvage some that were in the middle of the pile . Fire burnt the roof off but it did not really hurt the walls . a new roof and lots of clean up and it was used the following season.
 
Potatoes heat just like hay or grain , and if the ventilation system fails, they will combust. Hard to say if this was what happened here. I have a friend that has a large potatoe storage, and his vent system is computer controlled and monitored 24/7 while it has spuds in storage, complete with back up gen set. Sad loss for this family for sure.
 
It looked like a pivot irrigator in one of the pictures. Do they irrigate up in that part of the country?
 
I grew up in Idaho and all the storage there is totally different from what I am seeing here. When I was a kid we had potato cellars designed like a root cellar and they were huge. Now all the storage is made with precast and huge air conditioning units hold the temperature. The only wood constructed buildings were the warehouses, where potatoes were packaged and shipped. So my question is was this storage or warehousing?
 
That was a storage and packing facility all in one. It's kind of a controlled atmosphere storage.
 
MN has several heavy potato growing areas. Monticello, Little Falls, Brooten, Long Prairie.... All sand, all irrigated. I don"t think taters like good, heavy clay ground.
 
Thanks, Randy, your comment and Bruce from Canada's comment were enlightening. Kinda funny how you never really consider some things as being flammable, especially when they contain a high percentage of water.
 
my heart goed out to any one who had a big fire i had one aswell in sep its verry awfull and hard to get over wes
 
I just out of curiousity asked one of my former co-workers from MI. if that was anywhere near him. He said it was 4 miles as the crow flies. Had no idea it would be that close.

Small world when you know lots of people.

Bad deal, hope he had good insurance.

Gene
 
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