Steelcase fire causes little damage

DUTTON — A fire in an outside wood-dust collector at a Steelcase Inc. plant was doused quickly Wednesday by the facility’s sprinkler system while evacuated employees looked on.
Dutton Fire Chief Russ Jansen said it appears a spark of some sort was sucked into a vacuum system that leads to a silo-like outdoor collection bin on the southeast side of the wood furniture plant, 4100 68th St. SE, around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday.


Jansen said sprinklers attached to the bin quickly extinguished the fire, preventing it from spreading.
“They have a system in place, and it worked perfectly,” Jansen said. “Everything worked the way it is supposed to.”
Firefighters worked for about an hour with an aerial truck, venting the container and looking for hot spots.
Employees were evacuated for about an hour before returning to work. Firefighters removed the burned sawdust from the silo and sprayed it with water to make sure the flames were doused.
The only damage was searing of the silo, which was visible on the outside of the tank. Some filters will have to be replaced, Jansen said.