Search suspended at grain elevator
Officials fear building collapse; three people are still missing
ATCHISON, Kan. – Crews suspended their search Sunday for three people missing after a thunderous explosion at a Kansas grain elevator killed three workers and hospitalized two others with severe burns.
Officials with the company that owns and operates the elevator said in a statement that they know the location of those who are missing and will resume the search at some point. They have brought an engineer to the scene to help develop a plan on how to continue the recovery effort.
The blast, which shook the ground so hard that it was felt in neighboring Missouri, is a harrowing reminder of the dangers workers face inside elevators brimming with highly combustible grain dust at the end of the harvest season.
The explosion Saturday night at the elevator in Atchison, about 50 miles northwest of Kansas City, sent an orange fireball into the night sky, shot off a chunk of the grain distribution building directly above the elevator and blew a large hole in the side of the one of its concrete silos.
The three workers killed were identified late Sunday as Chad Roberts, 20; Ryan Federinko, 21; and John Burke, 24.
Bartlett Grain Co. officials decided to temporarily halt the search for the three missing people – one worker and two grain inspectors – because it was unsafe to be inside the facility, said Atchison City Manager Trey Cocking. Smoke could still be seen billowing from the top, and officials were fearful the building could fall on rescue crews.
Cocking said crews had not given up hope that they would find the remaining three alive, although the search was now considered a recovery effort. The victims’ names had not been released by Bartlett Grain as of Sunday evening.
One of the missing was Travis Keil, a war veteran who had served as a site inspector for 16 years. His parents, Gary and Ramona Keil, drove from Salina to Atchison, to wait with his three children – ages 8, 12 and 15 – as crews searched.
“We have all our prayers working for him,” Gary Keil said. “It’s a parent’s worst nightmare to go through this.”
Rob Nohr, an engineer from Yankton, S.D., hired by Bartlett Grain, was at the scene Sunday night with federal safety investigators assessing the situation and coming up with the next steps of the recovery plan. Grain company officials said Nohr is an expert in helping investigate such accidents.
Bartlett Grain President Bill Fellows said in a statement that workers were loading a train with corn when the explosion occurred, but the cause was not immediately known.
Over the past four decades, there have more than 600 explosions at grain elevators, killing more than 250 people and injuring more than 1,000, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Just last year, there were grain explosions or fires in several states including In Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, South Dakota and Louisiana.
The Atchison elevator, which is federally licensed to handle up to 1.18 million bushels, is among roughly 850 elevators in Kansas.