Great Western Malting in Vancouver suffered two fire-related incidents during a malting process in one day in late November, with each incident related to the other, officials said.
The first call to 911 came in at 3:15 a.m. at the malt plant at 1855 N.W. Harborside Drive on the Vancouver’s industrial west side.
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Somewhere in the malting process — after the product had gone through the baking process and then entered the cooling process — the material did not cool down enough and ignited, Vancouver Fire Department Capt. Joe Spatz said.
Firefighters hosed down the fire in a cooling bin, which was about the size of a dumpster, and extinguished the material. They remained on scene for about two hours.
However, firefighters ended up forced to return later one because some of the material had gone up a flue and reignited, causing a fire in a filtering system. Firefighters then extinguished that fire.
Great Western Malting supplies brewers, distillers and food processors in the United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico with malts, according to its website.