Pellet mill fire.... WI

[Jake]

Got a call from a mill we take our sawduat to... seems theyre out of commision for awhile

they make pellets for American wood Fiber.

(broken link removed)

 

[northwinds]

It's a relatively new company. Opened in April, 2006 according to this article:

http://tinyurl.com/yubhtg

 

[restorer]

Read both linked articles. Sad to see this happen. Really feel sorry for the owner and the community. Seems like the right kind of business to have in a community. I'd rather see one of those Agri-business ethanol plants go up. Sounds like it was only damaged, not destroyed. Hope they can rebuild and get back into production. As it's the end of the buying season, it happened at the best (if you can think that way) time of the year.

Shouldn't impact the cost, because of the abundance in their area, but may impact future costs. Let's hope for the business and community's sake they get things up and running again.

 

[Corey]

Wow, that is something. Glad to hear the two guys at least made it out. It will be interesting to see what the ultimate cause is...I've never thought of pellets as 'explosive'. Keep us posted if any additional articles show up.

Corey

 

[restorer]

Wow, that is something. Glad to hear the two guys at least made it out. It will be interesting to see what the ultimate cause is...I've never thought of pellets as 'explosive'. Keep us posted if any additional articles show up.

Corey

Corey:
Probably not a pellet explosion, but other causes could be fuel for heating and drying the pellets, an accumulation of fine wood dust (very explosive) build of of static electricity in the dust collection system.

One of the biggest concerns for wood shops is the dust collection system catching fire. They can explode. Still would like to know the cause.

 

[Jake]

I'm sure I'll find out the cost after the place gets up and running again

 

[jjbaer]

Wow, that is something. Glad to hear the two guys at least made it out. It will be interesting to see what the ultimate cause is...I've never thought of pellets as 'explosive'. Keep us posted if any additional articles show up.

Corey

Corey:
Probably not a pellet explosion, but other causes could be fuel for heating and drying the pellets, an accumulation of fine wood dust (very explosive) build of of static electricity in the dust collection system.

One of the biggest concerns for wood shops is the dust collection system catching fire. They can explode. Still would like to know the cause.

Grain elevators are the same way....hold a match to grain and there's no explosion....hold that same match to fine particle grain dust in large quantities (insert grain elevator) and "poof"...you get a grain elevator explosion that will destroy the place............substances that you don't think of as easily burning, when in very fine partical form (and therefore lots of surface area in proportion to their volume) may violently combust (i.e., explode).......

 

[webbie]

When I toured NE Pellet they had this one area where trucks were offloaded INSIDE - this was sawdust that was already dry.

That place was sealed off from the rest, and according to my tour guide was sort of a nightmare to work in. We walked in for a second and I can assure you that dust was in the air at a level that would definitely be combustible in the right circumstances.

NE Pellets seems to know this, and also that it does not make for great working conditions. They have engineered a solution to this problem and are implementing it - in the future these trucks will be unloaded with little or no humans around. - Note, the trucks with wet sawdust are simply dumped outside by a "dump bridge" that they roll onto and are them propped up.

 

[Goldfever69]

Hi All

This is my first time here, lots of stuff about pellets eh! I am from Central BC, I was hired here at Pinnacle Pellet in 2000, worked my way through production from the clean-up kid to senior Operator,Now I am the production Manager at this plant, I also set up to my liking our Houston Pellet Mill which is now a partner with CANFOR. That plant has 5 pelleters with the room for 12 total. This company has 3 locations in BC, as of today we have a total of 11 pelleters 2 mills have 3 each and one has 5, each pelleter can produce up to 4+ tons per hour. We run 24 hours a day and all 3 plants combined produce roughly 44 tons per hour. When I started with this company we made less then 100 tons per 24 hours now we make more then 1000 tons per 24 hours.

That is alot of wood we deal with, FIRE is our biggest concern yet we are well prepared to deal with fires as we have them all the time. If you are prepared with fire suppression equipment and have spark detection and auto deluge in every danger zone as well as very well trained workers with the procedures to deal with fires your mill will be able to survive fires. I personally put out a large fire at our Kersley plant this january. Not too much of a concern as we are prepared and expect these fires sooner then later. We lost about 4 hours production due to the fire. But we all get to keep our jobs.

The mills that burn down are the ones that are not prepared. As a mill owner you should expect many fires and by expecting them you are more prepared for them. If we had less then an elite team of workers then we might be in for some trouble, but our produtction crews are more then prepared to deal with fire before it becomes a problem.

If you do not prepare and expect to have Fires then you will burn down. This industry is a very dusty one!

Ryan

 

[elkimmeg]

goldfever69 welcome to the hHearth and thanks of ti insight to the dangers at pellet plants

 

[HarryBack]

great post, Goldfever69! Thanks! By the way, you guys make a great pellet!