Fire and Rescue NSW are using drones to monitor collapsed silos at Manildra. Photo: Fire and Rescue NSW.
Fire crews who responded to an alarm at Bomaderry overnight arrived to find no flames, but about 2000 tonnes of spilt grain.
A fire alarm at Manildra was likely triggered by the dust generated when two silos containing wheat collapsed about 10 pm on Thursday 17 October.
A third silo was also compromised.
Fire and Rescue superintendent Adam Dewberry said crews swung into action to make the area safe.
“Fortunately no one was hurt in the collapse,” he said.
“We evacuated 65 people as a precaution and set up an exclusion zone for safety reasons.
“The plant is still able to operate in a limited capacity, so it can function day-to-day with the exclusion zone in place.
“Grain is quite a benign substance but unfortunately a fair bit has entered the river, and today the Environment Protection Agency along with Hazmat and salvage crews are on scene working through that.”
Crews from Shellharbour, Berry, Nowra and Moruya attended to manage the scene.
It’s estimated the third, compromised silo contains a further 500 tonnes of grain.
A remote excavator may have to be deployed to further stabilise the silos and allow the recovery process to continue.
Adam said while silo incidents aren’t common, they’re not unheard of.
“Across the state it can be industrial silos or other machines that fail or catch fire,” he said.
“Our main concern is people, infrastructure and the environment.
“Because of the variety of risks in the community we have a series of guidelines to approach all situations. When you apply that strategy it can work for any and every situation, and every truck is equipped for rescue.
“The important thing for us is to ensure there’s no risk to life, so we are quick to stabilise situations like this.”
About 20 firefighters remain on scene, including FRNSW Hazmat specialists, and RPAS, or drone pilots.
The RPAS team are using drones to monitor the area from above.
Safework is also attending.
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