Explosions Rip Grain Silos in Illinois: 2 Killed, 3 Hurt

Two explosions ripped through a grain elevator complex Friday, killing at least two people, injuring three others and leveling four grain silos and an office building, authorities said.

Three other people were reported missing at the ADM Growmark complex, located along the Des Plaines River about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, said Lynn Behringer, a spokeswoman for the Will County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency.

“It shook this building like a truck or something had hit the back,” said John Vanderlinden, a worker at nearby Stonitsch Construction Co. “It was quite a big explosion.”

Authorities suspect that grain dust may have caused the first explosion, which ruptured a natural gas main and touched off a second blast moments later, Fire Chief George Plese said. Granaries pose an explosion risk because of highly flammable grain dust.

The explosions leveled four 100-foot-tall concrete silos at the complex, said Dick Burket, a spokesman for the granary. One silo crushed the adjacent one-story office building.

“It’s gone, totaled, level complete--just like dynamite,” said Bob Butterfield, 64, a Wilmington farmer who said he saw metal and concrete flying through the air after the blast.

“I ran about 30 feet when I fell and rolled. It just came down in a big pile,” said Butterfield, who witnessed the blast while he was leaving the complex after unloading a truckload of grain.

Rescue workers used dogs, bulldozers and a crane to search for two people believed missing in a 25-foot-high pile of concrete chunks and steel mixed with corn and soybeans, authorities said.

“It looks like a war zone,” one police officer said.

Disaster officials also sent four boats to search the river after a witness reported seeing a third person fall off a barge nearby, Behringer said.

The explosion shattered windows in homes east of the complex and sprayed grain and rubble, burying a tractor-trailer rig.

Authorities identified the dead as Dale Brent Slatton, 28, of Newark, Ill., and Mark D. Stewart, 20, of Anchor. Both worked at the elevator, Stewart part-time while he studied agriculture at Joliet Junior College.

One person was listed in fair condition at St. Joseph Medical Center and another was treated and released, spokeswoman Phyllis Oudt said. A third person was treated at Silver Cross Hospital and released, spokeswoman Julie Grant said.

The ADM Growmark elevator is a joint venture between Decatur-based Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Bloomington-based Growmark, a cooperative that sells farm supplies and markets grain.

Burket said the complex receives grain hauled by truck and transfers it to river barges.