SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION STARTED FIRE

The manager of the Little Falls ethanol plant thinks the cause of the explosion over the weekend was spontaneous combustion. Kerry Nixon said it appears that wood chips in the gasification silo at Central Minnesota Ethanol Co-op caught fire and the buildup of gasses blew the roof off the top. Nixon said the chips were stagnant because of a combustion tube problem. Nobody was hurt in the explosion and fire. The plant was shut down Monday but is now running at full capacity on backup burners fueled by natural gas.