A number of crews attended Saturday’s fire at Baiada’s Cardiff feedmill. Photo: newy.com.au
FIRE and Rescue NSW crews contained a fire that broke out inside a grinder hopper at Baiada’s Cardiff feed mill, west of Newcastle, on Saturday morning.
Crews were called to the scene at about 1010 on Saturday after an automatic alarm was triggered.
More than 35 firefighters and 10 trucks attended during the incident, and four people were evacuated from the site, with no injuries reported.
NSW Fire and Rescue Lower Hunter zone commander Acting Superintendent James Manuao said the fire started in the grinder before spreading through the dust-extraction system to the fourth floor and extraction fan.
“When we arrived, the smoke was coming out the top,” Acting Superintendent Manuao said.
He said the incident was considered high-risk, with concerns about the possibility for a grain-dust explosion.
He said the weather also made the situation worse with the “humid and warm” conditions exacerbating potential health risks for firefighters.
Temperatures have been reported as reaching approximately 300 degress Celsius in the vertical ductwork leading towards the basement.
“We managed to get the fire and the fan at the top out and extinguished it, and then followed down to the bottom.
“We removed many of the access and maintenance ports on that refiner down the bottom and managed to extinguish the fire in the bottom.”
Acting Superintendent Manuao said there were concerns the fire had spread to an explosive-proof room, and crews were initially unable to access it as grain had spilled out and “was up against the door”.
“Once we managed to make access there, we were concerned about it because there was some light smoke coming out.
“When we investigated further, we found smoke had come up through that refiner, up the chute and it pooled in that explosive room.”
Acting Superintendent Manuao said crews had to carefully dismantle key parts of the mill’s machinery to ensure it could be reassembled.
“We didn’t want to destroy the processor and all that sort of stuff to put the fire out.”
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
The Cardiff mill was acquired by Baiada in 2017 from Ingham’s.
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