A Sunday night fire has temporarily shut down the Export Grain Terminal at the Port of Longview, and officials are still investigating the cause.
The fire caused one of the main conveyor belts to split in half, officials said, but it’s not clear how long it will take to replace or when regular terminal operations can resume.
The plant was still down Tuesday morning.
“They’re going to have to replace that. It’s going to take some time to pull it out of there,” said Longview Fire Chief Phil Jurmu.
Crews from the Longview Fire Department and Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue responded to the blaze at about 8 p.m. Sunday. They arrived to find black smoke billowing from a tower closest to Fibre Way.
The fire started inside the drive tower, which is responsible for powering one of the main conveyor belt systems. The smoke rose up through that tower and spread along the conveyor belt to another tower where the grain is weighed, Jurmu said.