Prairie Pride fire; Four area departments respond to blaze.

The Prairie Pride Bio-Diesel Production Plant four miles west of Deerfield was scheduled to be back in production Wednesday following a Monday night fire that company officials and firefighters said burned only crushed dry soybeans on the first and third floors and outside the 17700 S. T Highway complex.

Jessie McKinney, a spokeswoman for the parent firm, Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur, Ill., said in an email that the fire started in the plant's pellet cooler area associated with soybean crushing.

"Production was not impacted at the bio-diesel portion of the plant and crushing operations are expected to resume tomorrow," McKinney said Tuesday afternoon.

About 30 men from the Deerfield Rural Volunteer Fire Department and departments in Nevada, Bronaugh and Fort Scott responded to the 7:51 p.m. Monday alarm, said Deerfield Fire Chief Bill Smith.

Equidistant between Nevada and Fort Scott, Deerfield is a village of 75 people nine miles west of Nevada on U.S. 54. "They had an electric fan motor (that blows dust and dry material) burn up," Smith said.

"There may have been a spark smoldering in the dust and dry bean products that they didn't realize was there. The electric motor may have gotten it started in a hopper on the first floor and then some of the material went through ductwork to a hopper on the third floor."

After the firefighters had extinguished those blazes and Smith released Fort Scott, Bronaugh and Nevada about 10 p.m., he said, some ADM men found fire in an outside bin and called on the Deerfield VFD to put it out.

"It's a big bin that collects all the filtered dust," Smith said. "The fire traveled through all that ductwork and hit three different places.

"Nobody got hurt, and I was pleased with the response," the chief said, adding that Deerfield's nine men left the scene at 11:25 p.m. "We had excellent help. Everybody responded real well and was willing to help."

Smith said there was no structural damage and no chemicals were involved.

Nevada Fire Chief Robert Benn reported that he and four other NFD firefighters took an engine and a tanker "on a mutual aid request from Deerfield" while Fort Scott Chief Paul Ballou went with his department's ladder truck and crew.

"The damage was limited to the product itself, but they may have some areas to paint," Benn said.