By Mark Young
The North Platte Telegraph

GOTHENBURG - An employee of All Points Cooperative, in Gothenburg, was injured when the primary grain elevator exploded during the early morning hours on Thursday.

According to Ed Foster, president of the cooperative, the explosion occurred at approximately 3:15 a.m. while the employee was working the dryers in the wet grain storage facility. Foster said the employee managed to escape through the south door and get to safety himself before being transported to a local hospital.

"He was taken to a local hospital and was being moved by ambulance to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Lincoln for observation," said Foster. "He seems to be okay, but had some blistering on his face. We are fortunate this happened when it did."

A witness to the explosion reported that her entire house shook when the elevator exploded and the sky lit up a bright orange color.

"I was sound asleep when it happened," said April Headley who lives one block away from the grain storage facility. "I heard three big bangs that sounded like thunder, but much louder. It shook the whole house and I looked out my bedroom window and saw the whole sky turn orange."

Headley's top floor bedroom window looks directly out at the cooperative's storage facility and she could see the flames erupting from where the head house on top of the grain elevator once stood.

"I looked out my bedroom window and I could see the mangled steel through the glow of the fire," she said. "The explosion woke up all my kids and it was pretty scary for awhile. My 8-year-old daughter was crying and it took awhile to calm them all down."

Headley operates a daycare out of her home and said that the flames were still visible as late as 5:30 that morning. Black smoke was still smoldering by Thursday afternoon. Foster said there were still concerns of secondary explosions, but felt like the situation was under control.

"There are always concerns of more explosions, but I feel like this has been contained," he said. "Fire marshals are on the scene assessing the situation and the state patrol is flying over to assess the structural damage. No one will be allowed to enter until it has been deemed safe by the fire marshals."

A substantial residential neighborhood is directly across the street from the facility and at least three houses were located behind the police line. A firefighter on the scene reported that there were no mandatory evacuations in place, "but people are being encouraged to leave," he said.

Multiple agencies responded to the explosion to include the state fire marshals office, Gothenburg's rural and city fire departments, Nebraska State Patrol and Union Pacific's police department. Foster said that Union Pacific operations were disrupted, but were back to being operational by Thursday afternoon.

"They have been slowed down to 5 miles per hour for the time being, but they are operational again," said Foster.

Most area farmers are more than halfway through the fall harvest, but they are being diverted away from the All Points facility. Foster said he expects his facility will be closed, "for a long time, but we won't make an official decision until at least Monday," he said.

Typically, these types of explosions occur when some kind of spark sets off the grain dust, which is highly flammable. Fire marshals were still investigating the cause and trying to update the media on an hourly basis. There was no further information available on the cause of the explosion or estimated financial losses, as of press time Thursday.