Koda Energy: Fire from Last Week's Explosion Contained

Fire still smolders at the Koda Energy site, which was the center of an explosion last week, but the blaze is under control, said representatives from both the city and the company.

The blast occurred just before 1 p.m. last Thursday afternoon. No one was hurt, but the explosion did spur an evacuation of the Koda Energy facilityhe subsequent fire spread from two silos (where the explosion originated) to the towers' conveyor system and a truck unloading facility. 

The fire at the truck dock has been put out.

Fire still burns inside the towers, however, which are filled with flammable materials like wood chips and oat hulls, the raw materials used to fuel the company's combined heat and power plant. On Friday a specialty contractor was brought in to help cool one of the silos, company representatives said. Fire fighters monitored the fire over the weekend as well.

On Tuesday afternoon, Shakopee Fire Chief Rick Coleman said that it was unclear how long it might take to quench the lingering blaze.

"The only (way) to extinguish the fire in the silos is to off load them (remove the product from the silos). In the next hour or so we will begin the process of removing product," Coleman told Patch. "At this time I do not have a good estimate of how long it is going to take to remove all of the product in the 6 silos."

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Koda reps say it is too soon to say when the facility may resume normal operations. Koda Energy is a partnership between Rahr Malting Co. and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. The plant became fully operational in May 2009.