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Fireghters battle Bramalea Road silo fire
Friday October 23 2009
By Heather Abrey, Enterprise Staff
Extra man power was called in to help fight a silo fire on Bramalea and Old School roads last Saturday.
 
Firefighters from across Caledon attended a silo fire that broke out on a property by Bramalea and Old School Roads.
Trucks from Snelgrove, Inglewood, Caledon East, Bolton and Cheltenham attended the scene, carrying between 20 and 25 firefighters, according to Fire Chief Brad Bigrigg.
"Silos, whether they're industrial or agricultural, they pose certain hazards," explained Bigrigg. "The grain dust within the silo, if there is a spark or a source of ignition, it will ignite the dust and it will explode... we have to staff up for a worst case scenario, that's why there were so many trucks. When the firefighters were responding to the call there was a lot of brown and black smoke, so that's when they called for extra help."  The crop stored in the silo was thought to be soy, and while there is a risk of explosion, the situation was kept under control and the fire was extinguished in about three hours. During that time Brampton Fire provided emergency coverage for Caledon "because we were basically stripped at the south end," explained Bigrigg. Brampton also provided an aerial truck, which was required because of the height of the silos. "They got up high enough that they could use their thermal imager to determine the temperature of the silos and the piping."
While a silo can be potentially hazardous, this operation was largely "hurry up and wait," according to Bigrigg. Firefighters were not pumping large amounts of water onto the fire, but did end up emptying the unit in which beans are dried. The fire is believed to have been contained mainly in the drier unit and did not travel up the silo.
"Along with all the regular hazards a firefighter faces we have to be watching for the moving equipment within the silo... and also have to watch for a grain dust explosion," said Bigrigg of some of the complexities of fighting a fire of this nature. "At the end of the day we're trying to minimize the farmer's loss and keep him in business."
Damage to the silo equipment is estimated at $25,000 and crop loss at $5,000. The cause has yet to be determined but is not considered suspicious.