Fire has visited this site no less than four times (that we know of) since an elevator has stood on the property. In 1951 a fire was discovered in the headworks of the earlier General Mills Elevator that stood here for a few decades. That fire was extinguished by the local firefighters. The firefighters then went home, satisfied that they had saved the building. A few hours later fire was discovered at the bottom of the elevator, which quickly spread throughout the building, reducing it to a pile of ashes and smouldering grain.
Construction of its replacement, a 50,000 bushel wood cribbed elevator, began in 1952, resulting in the present elevator. The annex to the north was added in 1959, increasing storage capacity by another 64,000 bushels.
Contract Let For General Mills Annex
A contract was awarded last week to O. M. Seaton, Choteau contractor, for the construction of a new annex for the General Mills elevator here. The new structure will be located on the north side of the present elevator, which was constructed in 1952.
The building, designed by Seaton, will be modern in every respect and will consist of eight bins of approximately 8,000 bushels capacity each, with all the controls for filling and emptying at floor level. Ray Ballantyne, manager of the General Mills elevator, states that the steady increase in business over the past several years necessitates the construction of this addition.
From the Choteau Acantha
In November of 1963 fire struck for a third time, this time with a fire in the elevator's pit. This fire was quickly
nipped in the bud by Choteau firemen with no further damage to the elevator.
In 1982 yet another 318,000 bushels of storage capacity was added with the construction of the three large concrete silos to the east of the elevator. They came into use in August of 1982.
The one item that seemed to create more interest than anything else during the year was the construction of three large concrete grain storage silos by General Mills Elevator Co.
The concrete pour of the grain silos was completed on July 9, and each will hold 106,000 bushels of grain. They are 133 feet high with 120 tons of reinforcement steel used in the bins. Once the pouring of concrete began, it was continued 24 hours a day, except for shutting down for three days over the July 4 holiday. Many residents made daily trips to the site to see the progress made during the previous 24-hour period.
From the Choteau Acantha,
Ten years later, in 1992, the elevator ws again visited by fire, again in the headworks and again extinguished by the local firefighters. This time, however, there wasn't a second fire to negate the efforts of the intrepid men of the local fire department. More on that story is below.
Again in 2002 the fire department responded to a smell of smoke in the elevator, but no fire was discovered. Today the "General Mills" name on the elevator has been painted over, telling us that it is no longer a General Mills elevator. We have, as yet, no information on the current operator.
Fire - Mechanical problem sparks fire in General Mills elevator
By Melody Martlnsen | August 19, 1992
Firefighters on Sunday put out a blaze in a Choteau General Mills grain elevator that damaged the terminal’s hoisting mechanism and upper level, but did not reach any stored grain.
Choteau City Fire Chief Dan Lannen said Monday that the fire caused some structural damage in the top level, damaged the hoisting mechanism, known as the “leg,” but did not reach grain stored in bins in the lower two levels. Lannen said the fire apparently started from a mechanical problem in the leg and spread up the leg to the rafters.
Neither Lannen nor Choteau elevator Manager Dale Hanson had dollar figures on damage resulting from the fire on Monday. Lannen said firefighters from the Choteau city and rural departments responded to the fire at 6:23 p.m. and cleared the scene by 9:30 p.m. Sheriff George Anderson said the fire was reported by a Choteau resident, who walked into the Sheriffs Department, located just yards from the elevator and pointed out the smoke seeping from the wooden frame building’s peaked roof. Lannen said he also called in backup help from the Dutton and Fairfield rural volunteer fire departments. The Choteau ambulance stood on stand-by and four sheriff's deputies and a Choteau police officer handled traffic that was rerouted around the west side of the Teton County Court House.
When firefighters arrived, Lannen said, the upper-most level of the three-story building was smoking and short tongues of flame were visible around the edges of the roof. The fire department hooked its water hose up to the building’s existing sprinkler system and pumped water up into the top level, he said, putting out the fire up to that point.
But the sprinkler system did not extend to the rafters, which continued to bum until firefighters turned on their “monitor”— a 1,000-gallon per minute nozzle, he said. The nozzle projected a powerful jet o f water to the top of the 60- to 70-foot tall structure, knocking some tin off the roof and allowing water to hit the rafter fire.
After that, firefighters gained access to the top level of the elevator and, using a single hose, mopped up remaining hot spots, he said. Gelling to the top of the elevator took some work, however, he said. Firefighters had to climb an exterior ladder to the top the elevator annex, just to the north of the terminal, and break down a door to get into the annex. They then went through the top floor of the annex to a catwalk and crossed the catwalk to the top level of the burning elevator.
Lannen said he did not have exact figures, but estimated that the fire departments sprayed several thousand gallons of water on the building. "There’s lots of wet grain in there,” he said. Hanson said the minimal structure damage and damage to the leg will shut down the terminal temporarily, but that General Mills is open at its nearby concrete terminals.
From the Choteau Acantha