A fire occurred at the DFS feed mill in Newell, Iowa, on the night of December 8—right in the middle of a snowstorm. The fire was extinguished within a few hours after the volunteer fire department arrived; however, damage was extensive, causing production at the mill to cease.
Younglove was notified of the situation the following morning. Within a few days, Younglove personnel and the Design Engineer had been to the site to assess the major damage to the structure and equipment and had worked with the owner and insurance company on a restoration plan. The first steps were to install temporary bracing for safety and to determine the necessary structural repairs. Equipment was also examined for replacement or repair.
Major work at the site started after the 1st of January, with Dave Johansen as the day superintendent and Mike Bangert as the night superintendent. They did a very good job of coordinating the work among our crews, Younglove subcontractors, and insurance company salvage/clean-up subcontractors.
Building repairs done by Younglove included removing and replacing a large section of the concrete work floor, several doors, and a partial floor at the cooler mezzanine.
Equipment work included repairing Pellet Line No. 1 and the mixer on site and rebuilding Pellet Mill No. 2 at the manufacturing plant. We replaced the cyclone/fan and cooler on Pellet Line No. 2; ductwork on both pellet systems; all bucket elevator belts and cups; a few steel leg sections; several drives for scale feeder augers; about 30 feet of the micro system drag conveyor and drive; all scale gates, intervents, and scale bin vent filters; two air compressors; and fat-at-the-die systems.
Several major plant improvements were also made. These included adding a new wall louver/ducted fresh air inlet system to the coolers, installing the two new air compressors on the warehouse mezzanine, adding ductwork to compressor exhaust air for recycle in the winter and exhaust in the summer, building a new 12-foot-by-30-foot exterior liquid pump house, and converting the liquid system to mass flow meters with a liquid batching system.
The plant started up with mixing on February 22, Pellet Line No. 1 on February 24, and Pellet Line No. 2 on March 10.
The fire also did extensive damage to the process piping and electrical systems. Knutson Brothers led the charge on the piping work, while Interstates Electric completed the electrical design and installation.