PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) – After more than a week of battling lingering fires, the process of demolishing five grain silos at BioUrja is underway.
On Sunday, Interim Peoria Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger said the grain silo labeled as 74 was demolished. That was the silo that needed nitrogen gas mitigation due to the smoldering fire.
After the silo came down, the Peoria Fire Department also wetted down the smoldering silo and grain.
The focus has now shifted to silo 75, which is where the original explosion occurred and the silo that contained the most product.
“We have to strategically figure out how we’re going to tackle that because what you don’t want to do is start to mitigate that process and create a different hazard. So we still have the possibility of an explosion, not knowing how much corn dust that’s actually in there. You can’t go in there with saws and start creating sparks,” Sollberger said.
Silo 75 must be taken down before the other silos due to its location.
Sollberger said Peoria firefighters and crews from BioUrja will remain on scene until it’s deemed safe for the community.
