(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Eight people were injured Sunday evening after an explosion and fire at an Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Decatur, Ill., officials announced Monday.
Although the extent of the injuries are unclear, and it’s not certain what led to the blast, the Decatur Fire Department has released information about the hourslong effort from firefighters to get the blaze under control.
Officials said the explosion happened a little after 7 p.m. at the facility, which also serves as ADM’s North American headquarters — with over 4,000 workers. Heavy smoke was seen from the northeast side of the plant, and the first crew to arrive on the scene found multiple injured workers, as well as severe damage to a couple of buildings.
Crews arriving later found debris scattered over a wide area and fires burning in a nearly 10-story building. Officials said rail cars had to be moved in order for firefighters to get access to the building on fire.
ADM is an agricultural company that produces soybean oil and white flake for soybean protein production. The facility also houses one of the largest corn wet mills in the world.
While crews started dousing the fire, officials said ADM provided a drone equipped with thermal imaging technology to help firefighters figure out where the remaining hotspots were in real time.
The fire department said crews were eventually able to get inside the buildings with ADM personnel, but battling the fires remained “a long and slow process” due to extensive damage inside of the structures. In all, 33 firefighters were called to the scene.
By 2 a.m. on Monday, the fire department reduced its on-scene presence to one fire company. In an update shared Monday afternoon, officials said the fire company was still working with ADM personnel to verify that all of the fires were extinguished.
The explosion is the second episode at the plant in less than a month, the (Decatur) Herald & Review reported. On Aug. 28, two Decatur firefighters required hospital treatment after they battled a large fire at the plant. In that instance, crews found heavy fire in a processing tank that was spreading into adjacent tanks.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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