Malteurop Canada has experienced the third fire in only a few months. Last Thursday the second fire within 10 days broke out in a grain silo of Malteurop’s 90,000 tons plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
According to plant manager Catherine Gros, the two last fires were related to each other. The company had detected a smoldering fire at the bottom of a cement silo on Oct. 3and unloaded the affected grain in the following days as advised by the alarmed firefighters. On Thursday, when most of the grain had been unloaded, the remaining volume caught fire and the company called again the fire brigade, which flushed the bin from the top.
A spokesman from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service informed the press that the cause is still under investigation.
The Winnipeg plant is the only Canadian malting site of Malteurop Groupe S.A., wich is with 2,200,000 tonnes of yearly production capacity one of the largest malting companies in the world. The headquarter is based in Reims/France and is part of Vivescia, a leading French farming and food industry cooperative group.
The operation in Canada was acquired by Malteurop in August 2008 when ADM disposed of its malting divison. In 2011-2014, major modernization work was done in Winnipeg. A new steep unit was built and the kiln was refurbished. In early 2015, Winnipeg received its first Food Safety certification.
