Cheney Grain Silos Burn, Then Collapse

A fire burned for 12 hours in downtown Cheney on Tuesday, collapsing a towering building holding thousands of bushels of grain.

Firefighters were called to the grain silos owned by Rosalia Producers, on First Street between F and G streets, about 2:45 a.m.

When they arrived, a building with 23 grain-storage bins was engulfed in flames.

“There was no stopping it once it got going,” Cheney Fire Capt. Mike Ault said.

Firefighters could only baby-sit the blaze, letting the building collapse and preventing the fire from spreading to nearby silos and office buildings.

The fire burned 27,000 bushels of feed barley, feed oats and Harrington brewing barley, and might have toasted another 102,000 bushels of brewing barley held in nearby silos.

The fire was doused late Tuesday afternoon. By then, it had eaten through wooden supports used to separate bins. A warped grain ladder barely hung onto disconnected power lines. Sheets of steel siding were folded over lines like clothes hanging out to dry.

Rosalia Producers bought the grain warehouses from Cheney Grain Growers on July 1, after a one-year lease. “We hate to see any kind of a loss, but we’ll go ahead … and get the harvest finished,” said Chris Meyer, general manager of Rosalia Producers.

The company will determine if any grain is salvageable. The company, a co-operative of more than 400 farmers, is insured.

A cause hasn’t been determined for the blaze, suspected to have started behind the building.

Preliminary damages were estimated at $500,000, firefighters said.

, DataTimes