UPDATE: New details on cause of corn bin fire

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. -- A corn bin fire started on Nov. 3 at Community Mills in Cassopolis.

After nearly three weeks of burning, it flared or ‘exploded’ on Friday morning, leaving one man injured.

The Central Cass Fire Department chief, Jeff Locke, explained the fire started through the ventilation system, which is there to keep air running through the corn.

“The electrical panel on the side of the bin where it shorted out, I don’t know what shorted it out but that threw sparks into the fans when they were running,” said Locke.

Once the fire was started, there was no easy solution to extinguish it. Latrell Pratt, a commercial applicator for Community Mills said they had to take out all of the unburnt corn out, starting at the top and working their way down.

“We first started off with a 100,000-bushel bin, completely full. Fire is on the ground in the bottom of the bin, so of course we had to take all the corn out of the bin,” said Pratt.

After weeks of corn being cleared from the bin, insurance company Chubb Agribusiness came to address the issue on Nov. 22. They cut a hole in the side of the bin to try to get a loader in to get to the root of the burning corn.

“What they didn’t expect when they cut the hole, it was hot enough that when it got all the air from the hole it flashed over and that’s what caused the explode, the explosion,” said Locke.

The fire department explained the explosion injured an insurance company employee, who suffered burns to his face, hair, hands, and arms. He was then taken to the hospital.

Now, Locke explained most of that corn is out of the bin and sitting off to the side.

“The corn behind me is still smoldering and it probably will be for a while. The company‘s gonna stick around and keep stirring it up to find the hotspots and keep putting the hotspots out. That’ll probably take maybe a week and then the game, the goal is to haul the corn to a landfill,” said Locke.

As for the bin, Pratt said the explosion blew the top off. So, Community Mills will have to replace both the lost corn and bin.