fire at shv hulling and cracking plant, page-2

Earlier this year, I drove past and had a good look at the plant. Luckily that fire is away from the processing shed. However as a CFA member for 20 years (different area), I would expect processing to be stopped for a few days, ie the place evacuated until deemed safe.

They will be able to use other conveyers straight away.

There are however longer term implications for the storage of the hulls. Spontaneous combustion, does not just happen due to low humidity and high winds. Having attended many "spontaneous combustion" fires of hay stacks, the usual cause is material stacked away with too high moisture levels that allows the decomposition of organic material, ie the heap was composting. A by product of this process is heat. Too much heat, plus low humidity, plus wind equals fire too often.

Select Harvests need to identify where the moisture came from to cause the composting. Is moisture and composting happening in other heaps? Have sparks got into other heaps?
Deep temperature probes needed immediately!! With CFA spraying lots of water around, plus summer approaching, not a good combination.

Basically a different method to current outdoor huge heaps needs to be found for the waste storage. Perhaps immediate relocation back to the farms and use as mulch needs to occur, ie the trucks bringing in a load of almonds, return with a load of hulls.

The story with photo can be found here...

http://www.sunraysiadaily.com.au/story/1835812/1m-plant-fire/?cs=1511