Nine fire departments were called to an ethanol plant after a gas leak sent flames 30 feet into the air.
It happened just before 7 a.m. at the Bushmills ethanol plant, which is one mile west of Atwater. Willmar Fire Chief Marv Calvin says as the Atwater fire department was on the way to the scene, they could see a large plume of fire.
Calvin says natural gas somehow sparked. He says the plant itself was not on fire and no ethanol burned either. Fire fighters shut off the natural gas line and allowed the remaining natural gas in the supply lines to burn off. Some unleaded fuel also burned off in the fire.
Calvin says the fire was out around 8:45 a.m. He says investigators will now work to find out what caused the fire. Calvin says the plant was running at the time but no one was hurt.
The Bushmills ethanol plant's Web site says it is a cooperative made up of 415 farmers. The plant began running on December 30, 2005 and produces about 49 million gallons of ethanol every year.
The plant is about one mile west of Atwater, which is in Kandiyohi County about 80 miles west of the Twin Cities.
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