South Dakota: Bales, waste products catch fire at Complete Hemp Processing

Several hemp bales and waste product caught fire at Complete Hemp Processing in Winfred on Thursday.

The Madison Fire Department responded to the call at about 2:10 p.m., Fire Chief Randy Minnaert, who was not at the scene, said. About six trucks responded to the fire, and the last one returned to the station in Madison by about 5:45 p.m. He said no one was injured and no buildings were damaged.

“Other than the bales, there was nothing else damaged. We were able to save all the buildings,” Minnaert said.

Ken Meyer, an owner of Complete Hemp Processing, told the Madison Daily Leader between two and six hemp bales caught fire. The fire spread to some unusable waste product from the processing of hemp.

“It would be kind of similar to getting a grass fire under control. Some of the waste from our product got hit by some sparks from our equipment, some agriculture equipment we were running outside, a grinder behind a tractor, and the guy in the tractor couldn’t see it,” Meyer said.

Complete Hemp Processing’s operations were not significantly disrupted by the fire, Meyer added. Only a few unprocessed bales caught on fire, leaving about 7,000 intact. The bales which caught on fire were staged outside the building to be brought inside for processing.

The waste product is parts of the hemp plant that can’t be made into a usable product. Meyer said the waste is pushed outside so it can be disposed of later.

“It was kind of crazy, because they (the fire department) came and did their thing, and immediately after we unloaded a truck that came in with bales, and we loaded them up with hemp hurd to go to a customer. And they’re back running this (Friday) morning to finish out a load that’s going out to New York later this afternoon,” he said.