PENDLETON, OREGON, US — Severe damage has been sustained at the Pendleton, Oregon, US, flour mill of Grain Craft as the result of a major fire at the facility. While details about the Aug. 10 incident remain preliminary, the company said no employees were injured.

“A fire has occurred at the Grain Craft mill in Pendleton, Ore.,” Chattanooga, Tennessee, US-based Grain Craft said Aug. 10. “There have been no employee injuries reported and our focus remains on the safety and well-being of our team members and the surrounding community. The mill has suffered substantial damage. We are still working to understand the situation.”

The fire was not yet contained the afternoon of Aug. 10. The East Oregonian quoted Pendleton Assistant Fire Chief Tony Pierotti as relating that the fire ignited at 4:30 a.m. and that “all signs point to the massive structure as a total loss.”

“The silos also were at full capacity of finished grain, so the fire fuel load is extreme,” he added.

Images on the East Oregonian and other websites showed a massive fire shooting up from the facility.

The Pendleton flour mill was built in the 1920s and has 22 employees, Grain Craft said.

Pendleton is located in eastern Oregon, about 200 miles due east of Portland. According to the Grain & Milling Annual published by Sosland Publishing Co., the mill has daily flour milling capacity of 6,000 cwts and storage capacity of 1.17 million bushels of wheat.

Grain Craft, which operates 13 flour mills in the United States, also has flour mills in the region in Portland (8,700 cwts of daily capacity); Blackfoot, Idaho (16,500 cwts); Ogden, Utah (16,400 cwts); and Great Falls and Billings, Montana (7,500 cwts and 6,400 cwts, respectively).