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Fire at Interstate Grain Corp. evacuates area, stacks traffic along I-37 at Up River Road

Posted at 10:29 AM, Feb 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-11 18:50:44-05

 

Traffic has been diverted by police on each side of Interstate 37 for about half a mile because of a fire report at the Interstate Grain Corp. in the 5700 block of Up River Road.

The area is between Corn Products Road and Lantana along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

Early reports indicate there is smoldering inside a grain elevator at the facility. Fire reports indicate there are 1,000 bushels of grain dust inside the silo. The concern is that material is considered to be extremely flammable and could cause an explosion.

“It’s all internal, kind of contained to the silo,” said Billy Belyeu, Public Information Director from the Corpus Christi Fire Department. “So, what they’re trying to do is figure out the best course of action to try to affect the extinguishment on it but right now, they have water flowing right now and trying to get it put out.”

Crews have pulled back people in the area and have moved railroad cars that are close to the smoldering fire.”

Fire personnel had trouble getting water to battle the fire because of the location of the silo.

“They’re pretty difficult because they’re all contained with the silo and areas where they have silos, there’s typically poor locations for fire hydrants,” Belyeu said. “So, there’s always a water supply issue and actually just getting to the fire is pretty difficult.”

Police evacuated the area soon after the fire was reported. We’ll have more as soon as we know about this breaking news event.