Roads to re-open while grain elevator cleanup continues in East Toledo
9/15/2010Miami Street and surrounding roads are expected to be re-opened by Wednesday afternoon as cleanup continues at a grain silo in East Toledo, where a fire earlier this week caused the evacuation of nearby homes and businesses.
Toledo Fire Battalion Chief Mark Klein said Wednesday morning that residents of a nearby mobile home park were allowed back into their residents late Tuesday night and that all neighboring businesses have full access to their sites.
Toledo firefighters continue to supervise the grain silo owned by Archer Daniels Midland at 1301 Miami St., but the immediate job is to have a construction crew enlarge a third hole that was punched into the silo on Tuesday night. The hole will continue to allow the drainage of the wheat from the damaged silo.
"There's no evidence of smoke and fire right now," said Chief Klein. "It's just an off-loading operation."
The chief said that until the silo is completely empty there is no way of inspecting the building to determine how the fire may have started and whether the structure can be saved.
The wheat that is spilling from the building is being collected in large piles at the site, and Chief Klein said he anticipates that it will eventually be burned or otherwise destroyed.