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A massive fire ripped through a Quaker Oats plant in Iowa Saturday after an apparent explosion — and miraculously no one was hurt.
Plumes of heavy smoke and flames were seen on the north side of the plant as firefighters rushed to the plant — which is the largest of its kind in the world — around 4:45 p.m., according to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department.
The blaze sparked from an explosion within the building, the department said.
All workers on-site were able to evacuate safely and no injuries were reported, Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell shared on Facebook.
The fire broke out in an area of the plant that handles products which is “not heavily populated with employees and team members,” O’Donnell said. “Which of course in this case was a blessing.”
It remains unclear how many workers were in the building when the blaze erupted.
“Firefighting operations were successful in extinguishing most of the fire,” the fire department shared in a release on Facebook.
However, there were “still limited operations addressing final efforts and overhaul in the interior of the building” around 6:25 p.m. local time.
The cause of the fire and explosion remains unknown as of Saturday night, fire officials said.
No firefighters were injured while battling the blaze.
A local witness described feeling “terror, sadness [and] worry” after seeing the plumes of smoke coming from the plant.
“Explosions are bad, fires are bad,” Dan Gardner told KCRG.
“Quaker Oats is a staple of this town,” he said. “So we don’t want to see them blow up.”
Texas resident Emilio Esquivel described the fire as “like a movie scene.”
“Seeing something like that was just like eye opening,” Esquivel told the local station. “It was eyebrow raising. It was crazy.”
The Quaker Oats plant is the largest milling facility in the world— processing over 2 million pounds of oats each day, according to the company’s website
Quaker Oats Company, owned by Pepsi Co, is most notably known for its old fashioned oats.
With Post wires.
