Firefighters and an excavator deal with the smouldering ruins of the barn. (Nelson Zandbergen photo)
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
CHESTERVILLE — Vanden Bosch Elevators suffered a serious structural fire on Oct. 27, but the owners managed to resume drying operations only five days after the blaze consumed a storage barn. The flames also destroyed one of two grain dryers on site, the operation’s grain-cleaning area, and field equipment stored inside the ravaged barn.
Local firefighters prevented the flames from inflicting worse damage at the Chesterville-based business after a “spectacular” effort, Brent Vanden Bosch reported. If uncontrolled, he said, the fire would have consumed the elevator office and closed the business for the rest of the season.
A passerby on County Rd. 7 noticed the flames around 7 a.m. and called 9-1-1. At about the same time, family matriarch Betty Vanden Bosch — Brent’s mother — was awakened by the sound of exploding tractor tires inside the storage barn.
Brent Vanden Bosch said the fire may have been sparked as many as two hours earlier when a suspected faulty bearing on a drag conveyor overheated. “But they can’t be 100 % sure of the cause,” he added.
No one was injured and no grain was damaged.
Five fire department water tankers ferried water to the scene for much of the day as firefighters hosed down the barn’s smouldering ruins. Some firefighters stayed all day and after dark that night.
In the ensuing week, damaged electronic controllers were replaced on the operation’s main corn-drying unit, restoring two-thirds of drying capacity. One third of capacity was lost outright to the fire, with the destruction of an older, original dryer that served the Vanden Bosch family for the last 25 years.
The operation lost drying revenue this season because of the untimely interruption during harvest and reduced capacity, but Vanden Bosch said they have insurance coverage for that and other losses. He said they will be fully rebuilt by next harvest season.
The destroyed vintage livestock barn was originally constructed by financier Hudson Allison in the year before his 1912 death aboard the infamous Titanic. A portion of the barn was previously lost in an early 1970s tornado that swept through Chesterville.
Also destroyed in the barn fire were two tractors, a planter, a sprayer, an air system and “years of spare parts and odds and ends,” Vanden Bosch said.
He recommends that farmers get in touch with their insurance brokers to document everything they have in storage. He said his list was out of date and didn’t include a set of brand new tractor tires sitting in the barn.
Firefighters on scene at Vanden Bosch Elevators, not long after the fire was noticed in the barn. (Birket Foster photo)
(Birket Foster photo)
