OMAHA, Neb. — Firefighters in eastern Nebraska battled a fire for hours following an explosion Tuesday at a wood pellet manufacturing plant, but authorities said they have been unable to get close enough to search for three people believed to be missing.
The explosion happened at the Horizon Biofuels plant, which makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, on the south end of Fremont, Nebraska.
Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said three individuals were in the building, but “that’s all we can say at this point,” he said in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re working with the state patrol as well as the state of Nebraska and other groups to assess the building and the structure of the building to where, again, we can be able to get in,” Spellerberg said.
Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said first responders were up against “heavy smoke and a lot of flames” when they first arrived on scene. The first call reporting the explosion came in just before noon, according to Spellerberg.
Photos taken after the explosion show the top of the facility’s tall tower — marked by a distinctive sunbeam logo of the former owner, Golden Sun Feeds — torn off, exposing mangled metal and ripped siding. Debris littered the ground below.
The facility uses tons of wood waste to manufacture their wood fuel pellets. An overnight fire at the building in 2014 had damaged the electrical system but left the structure in tact, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune. A fire captain said at the time that the building has a “cement structure on the outside and the metal frame is tied into that.”
Bernt said they believe the facility stores wood and some alcohol-based materials.
Dodge County Attorney Pamela Hopkins, who also serves as the county coroner, said law enforcement and first responders were busy securing the scene Tuesday afternoon and had not yet contacted her in her role as coroner. She added that she was hoping not to get that call.
“Right now, we’re focused on the safety of the community and getting the situation under control — keeping the scene secure,” Hopkins said. She declined to comment further.
Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska, is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha, Nebraska. The site of the explosion is surrounded by other manufacturing and food processing plants.
Taylor Kirklin, who lives about a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the building, said her whole house shook Tuesday. She said the explosion was so loud that she thought someone had driven into the lobby of her family’s dog kennel business on the property.
“I got up and looked outside and there was a huge plume of smoke,” she said. “We were really unsure when the explosion happened which plant it was because there are so many in that area.”