Estherville, IA: A wooden grain elevator used for fire fighting practice

(see the bottom for a satellite image)

I didn't label this grainDanger as click bait because this blog is not monetized (no advertisements). I added that label because it shows how dangerous a wooden elevator can be. The fire fighters would start a fire and then put it out. Then they would start another fire and put it out. I've seen our fire department remove houses in Downers Grove, IL, the same way. It looks like they put it out twice and then let the third fire finish the building.

Tom McLauphlin posted 23 photos with the comment:

I happened to be in Estherville when the old Golden Sun elevator was burned down on Saturday so I was able to get a few pictures. In talking with one of the fire department officials it was a very worthwhile and successful training exercise. Sure, they would have liked to have seen it saved as much as anyone but it was realistically too far gone from so many years of neglect and had become a public safety hazard. Here are some photos from before, during and after the fire.

David Tallman How long did it take to burn down the elevator?
Tom McLaughlin They started around 6:30 in the morning and most of it was down by 10 or 10:30. By 1:00 it was just a pile of smoldering rubble. They purposely kept the fire under control to protect the neighboring structures so it was never really a raging inferno.

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[I'm assuming the crane was there because they first removed a metal roof and/or elevator.]

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[I wonder if the 3-way, fan-shaped stream in the lower-right corner is fed by one hose.]

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[That town has a good water supply. I've seen at least six streams of water from this angle. I wonder if they are shooting water from the east side and/or north side as well. And how many pumpers they are using.]

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I'm saving the satellite image since it will be disappearing.

Satellite