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Crews Fight Fire at East Grand Forks, Minnesota Sugar Plant

Feb. 1, 2005

A slow-burning fire damaged the break room, locker room and an office at the Crystal Sugar plant here, but no one was hurt and the plant will continue operating, firefighters said.

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. (AP) -- A slow-burning fire damaged the break room, locker room and an office at the Crystal Sugar plant here, but no one was hurt and the plant will continue operating, firefighters said.

Firefighters said sparks flew out of a boiler and began smoldering behind a wall sometime Monday. Firefighters were called about 8 p.m. Monday and finished their work about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Assistant Fire Chief Melvin Hoverson said a malfunction in a coal-burning boiler apparently forced air the wrong way. That blew open the doors of the boiler and spread sparks throughout the beet-processing plant.

A dollar estimate of damage wasn't immediately available.

Hoverson said the fire wouldn't halt operations at the plant, although employees wouldn't be able to use the break room for some time.

He said it wasn't the first, or the worst, fire in the plant's history.