Fire officials report no injuries; department had no immediate cause information
Fire officials said no one was hurt in Saturday’s fire at the Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said in a Facebook video that all workers got out safely and were accounted for without injuries, while the Cedar Rapids Fire Department said on Facebook that the fire “evidently began with an explosion.”
The Quaker Oats brand, by way of the Quaker Mill Company, is owned by PepsiCo and turns 150 years old in 2027.
According to the company’s website, the Cedar Rapids facility is the largest milling facility in the world, processing over 2 million pounds (900,000 kilograms) of oats daily.
O’Donnell said the fire happened in an area of the building that handled products. “It’s not heavily populated with employees and team members. Which of course in this case was a blessing,” O’Donnell said.
Video and photos posted to social media showed black smoke over downtown Cedar Rapids, a city of about 140,000.
The Cedar Rapids Fire Department said firefighters responded to the call at about 4:45 p.m.
The department said there was no immediate information about what caused the fire. PepsiCo Foods US said in a statement that fire responders went to the scene of the blaze and that how it started would be investigated.