PEORIA, Ill. — Explosions attributed to spontaneous grain dust ignition caused massive damage to several grain silos located at the BioUrja (formerly ADM) renewables plant in south Peoria on the evening of Wednesday, May 11. The blasts, captured on security video from the east side of the Illinois River, injured two workers, both of whom were treated and released from a local hospital.

Fires confined to grain storage areas continued to reignite over the past weekend and were still not fully extinguished as of press time for Farm World on Monday, May 16. No cause for the blasts, which disabled at least four of the ethanol plant’s grain bins, has yet to be officially announced by the company.

“We are still assessing what is the root cause of the problem,” Scott Carey, CEO of BioUrja Renewables, told the USA TODAY network. “Basically, one of our steel grain bins imploded and caused a fire within the bin that led to the explosions that occurred. Beyond that, I don’t have much information to divulge.”

However, Peoria Interim Fire Chief Shawn Sollenberger told local news media that the likely cause of the blast was grain dust implosion. The first fire crews arrived at the plant, which was purchased from ADM in late 2021, just before 9 p.m. and had returned to the scene at least twice by press time. He added that as his crew continued to spray layers of water over the structurally unsound area of the plant, further collapse could not be ruled out. 

“It’s very risky,” Sollenberger said. “If we don’t mitigate it now, it could be worse. We can’t physically get to where we need to be due to the structural integrity of the silos.”

Carey said that the company will continue to look into what happened to cause the blasts, which the Peoria Fire Department initially estimated as causing at least $2 million in damage. “Our number one priority is assessing the problem and then making sure that when we do restart the facility, it’s done in the most safe manner possible,” Casey stated. 

The facility was initially shut down as safety inspectors from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the site. Firefighters monitored the site well into Thursday afternoon due to a high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It was unclear if the facility was at least partially reopened over the weekend, though this reporter saw semi trucks pull into the main gate of the plant on two occasions on Saturday, May 14. 

BioUrja Renewables is an international renewable energy provider with U.S. headquarters in Houston, Texas. Both a phone message and an email sent to Carey by Farm World seeking information on the extent of the damage and a timetable for reopening the facility to area farmers were not answered by press time for this newspaper.