Big scare for the employees of the Center Ouest Céréales silo located at a place called Ablet, commune of Roches-Prémarie-Andillé, near the La Villedieu-du-Clain stadium, Friday October 18, 2024. Around 7 a.m., the warm-up of A crop of sunflowers started to catch fire in the dryer.
Some smoke and sparks
According to our information, there was a release of smoke and a few sparks at the top of the drying tower. On their arrival, the twenty-three firefighters engaged with two firefighting vans and the large ladder found that the employees of the agricultural site had taken the lead: a large part of the 70 tons present in the building had been spread over the site parking lot.
Excess moisture in the sunflower is the cause
There was no damage. The firefighters checked the installations after the dryer had completely emptied. Like poorly dried hay bales, the heating of which can cause fires, this incident illustrates the risks caused by excess humidity in sunflower crops (up to 25% for a maximum allowed at 9 %) This year. The agricultural world didn’t need that.
