Factory workers evacuated as fire erupts in grain silo at Bomaderry plant, south of Sydney

A blaze erupted in a silo containing hundreds of tonnes of grain at a factory south of Sydney on Monday morning.

Fifteen people were evacuated from the Bomaderry facility, but firefighters are still on site on Tuesday afternoon to finish the mammoth task of clearing the smouldering grain from the silo.

The fire was detected when an alarm went off about 9.30am on Monday, alerting Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crews to “a smouldering silo, containing 600 tonnes of grain”.

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Even though FRNSW Duty Commander Richard Jones called the incident “a best-case-scenario” after it had been brought under control, the task of fully extinguishing the blaze remains a time-consuming one.

“While business operations have been impacted, the actions of the facilities staff and firefighters have prevented the fire spreading and causing any further damage,” he said.

Firefighters expected to spend the night “working with on-site staff to mechanically remove the product from the base of the silo,” FRNSW said on Monday.

Seven firetrucks and about 30 firefighters were still working on clearing the smouldering grain at midday on Tuesday.

Scientific officers, and drones reading the temperature of the grain, are also on-site.

FRNSW is working on a plan to use bulk C02 in the silo, and onsite engineers will set up a conveyor belt to transport the grain away from the silo, FRNSW said.

The cause of the blaze remains unknown.