Fire destroys grain elevator, flathouse

Fire roared through two downtown buildings owned by the Odessa Union Warehouse Tuesday night, destroying them completely. An evacuation order was issued by the Odessa Police and Fire Departments and went out to nearby residents through the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office automated calling system.

According to town Fire Chief Don Strebeck, the first 911 call was received at 8:15 p.m. The members of a bunco group were meeting at Any Occasion Banquet Hall, and one of them, Peggy DeWulf, glanced out the window and saw flames on top of the grain elevator down the street next to the Union’s office building. She and others began calling in at about the same time. People up on the south hill were also able to spot the flames soon after they started.

Emergency vehicles streamed into the area, and fire crews began to pour water on the blaze. By that time, however, Strebeck said, the grain elevator was already too far gone, and the decision was made to let it burn itself out, while crews worked to protect surrounding structures. The eastern half of Marjorie Street and other nearby homes were evacuated, he said, because it was initially unclear exactly what was stored in the flathouse adjacent to the elevator.

Some early reports, Strebeck said, indicated that barrels of methanol might be stored there and could present an explosion hazard. Later on, however, an employee of the Union told the Fire Chief that the methanol had been shipped out several days earlier. The flathouse was used primarily for equipment storage. Union employees were able to remove a tractor and some of the equipment before the flathouse also caught fire and began to burn in earnest.

Vehicles parked around the burning structures were moved to safer quarters, so ultimately only the grain elevator and flathouse were lost to the flames.

Strebeck said he and his crew initially hoped they could save the grain that was stored in the elevator by letting the wood burn down around it. Putting water on the grain would have ruined it. The grain also caught fire, however, and flames continued to pour out the top of the elevator structure even after the adjacent flathouse fire had pretty much burned itself out.

A power pole feeding electricity to half the town was also in harm’s way, Strebeck said, and finally it, too, caught fire. Crews quickly extinguished the pole fire and were able to save the pole. By that time, it had been determined that there was after all no danger of explosion (even though bystanders, this reporter included, heard several loud booms during the intense part of the blaze), so crews moved in to pour water on it. The evacuation order was canceled at 10:22 p.m., and residents were allowed to return to their homes.

Fire crews stayed in place, watching for flying embers that might endanger other structures and continued to put water on the flames until the blaze was finally put out. The firefighting crews were dismissed at 12:30 a.m., but Strebeck and Rural Fire Chief Roger Sebesta continued to monitor the site until sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m.

Wednesday morning the collapsed buildings still smoldered and small patches of flame could even be seen here and there, as the flames sought out residual fuel in the wreckage.

Keith Bailey, general manager of the Odessa Union Warehouse, was meeting with insurance representatives Wednesday morning to try to determine the estimated losses. Marketing manager Byron Behne reported to The Record that the losses included 12,000 bushels of soft white wheat, 9,000 bushels of dark northern spring wheat, 260 tons of barley and approximately 2,000 bushels of canola. Strebeck said he had been told that the replacement value of the buildings themselves could run as high as $600,000.

Behne was unsure what kind of equipment was located on top of the grain elevator where the fire appeared to have started. He thought that there might have been communications equipment used by the Union to stay in touch with its other locations throughout the area, but he had no further information.