Sheldon Fire Company got the called Monday, September 21 at 5:06 a.m. to Kent Nutrition Group at 1500 RMT Ave. for a report of an explosion in the feed mill.
Firefighters met with employees upon arrival and could see the damage to the east side of the tower in the north part of the facility. At that point, they shut down utilities to that part of the facility.
Firefighters discovered nothing of concern in the facility other than the that already occurred.
The cause of the incident appears to be accidental in nature, according to Sheldon Fire chief Brad Hindt. Employees said they were starting up the grain dryer for daily operations when the explosion happened.
There were no injuries in the incident.
Sheldon Fire was assisted by the Sheldon Police Department, the O’Brien County EMA, the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office, and employees at Kent Feeds.
Firefighters were back in service about one hour later at 6:04 a.m.
Not the First Incident
Monday morning’s explosion at Kent Feeds, which was formerly known as Deluxe Feeds, was not the first at the facility.
An explosion in July of 2019 left a large hole in the side of one of its buildings. Five people were inside the building at the time, but no one suffered an injury.
Damage to one of the towers at the Kent Nutrition Group facility after an explosion in Sheldon, Iowa.
Source: KTIV
Deluxe Feeds was in the middle of a $37 million expansion to the Sheldon facility at the time of that explosion.
At the time of the expansion, the company added five pellet mills, two processing lines, high-efficiency packaging equipment, robotic pelletizers, grain cleaning, and packing innovations, and a 50,000-square-foot warehouse.
Deluxe Feeds was penalized $10,000 by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in May of 2019 for multiple violations including failure to obtain construction permits for previously installed equipment, construction of a feed mill without construction permits, and failure to comply with National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.
The explosion happened two months later.
The Sheldon Fire Co. had another incident to report at the Kent plant in December of 2022. It was for a fire that started in a feed pellet machine in the feed mill area of the plant. The damage ended up confined to one feed pellet machine, the exhaust system, and several pallets of paper.
There was another fire at the plant in November of 2025. Firefighters found a cooler on the second floor that was hot and smoldering. Firefighters contained the fire inside the cooler, and damage confined to the pellet machine and the product.
Muscatine, IA-based Kent Nutrition Group acquired Deluxe Feeds in October of 2016. Kent is a major animal nutrition and feed manufacturer.