At 3:49 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 27, the City of Russell Fire Department was dispatched to Purina Animal Nutrition at 1068 East 15th Street in Russell for a report of black smoke coming from the third story of the industrial plant.
According to Fire Chief Dylan Riedel, crews arriving on scene observed heavy black smoke ventilating from the third floor of Purina. Crews did a full walk around the plant and located a fire inside a roll-off container in the back of the facility.
Fire crews gained access through a door on the south side of the facility and extinguished a fire inside the roll-off container. The roll-off container was removed from inside of the building and crews remained on scene for several hours, checking for extension throughout the plant.
Minor damage was caused to the interior of the building that surrounded the roll-off container. The cause of the fire is due to spontaneous combustion from the plant bi-products that were located inside the roll-off container.