(The following story by Stacey Creasy of GateHouse News Service appeared on the Galesburg Regsiter-Mail website on July 11.)
CAMERON, Ill. — On a normal evening you can hear the children playing and dogs barking in Cameron.
Tuesday was not a normal evening.
An elevator bin that housed 80,000 bushels of corn came crashing down across the BNSF railroad tracks just before 7 p.m.
Fortunately, local firefighters were not too far away.
“We just came out of a fire district meeting when some of the guys heard a bang, bang, bang, and the bin split open,” said Cameron Fire Chief Dave Watson. “The corn was about eight feet deep on the railroad tracks.”
One of the firefighters called the Monmouth Police Department to have the 911 dispatcher contact BNSF and stop all train traffic.
Officials with BNSF said about 30 trains were delayed due to the mishap. The tracks were shut down until 3:30 a.m.
“By 4 a.m. a couple of trains came through, but they were moving slowly, 5-10 miles an hour at the most,” Watson added.
Firefighters were on the scene until 5 a.m. The bins are part of Cameron Grain. Watson said the grain company managed to bring in a vacuum truck, which has been sucking up the corn ever since.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday there was still a small hill of corn 25 to 30 feet high in some spots. Watson said it will take the entire day to suck up all the spilled corn.
Investigators do not know why the bin collapsed.
“I was told by someone at the elevator that corn heats up and cools down and over a period of time that puts a lot of stress on the metal,” Watson said. “Those bins are over 40 years old.”
No one was injured during the incident. The grain bin is located in the downtown area, and there are residences, the fire station and buildings across the street.