According to Greene County Sheriff records, at 2:43pm on Wednesday, the sheriff’s office and Grand Junction Fire and Rescue responded to a fire at the Louis Dreyfus Ethanol Plant north of Grand Junction.

Grand Junction Fire Chief Mark Renslow says a semi-tractor and trailer had two blown tires on the truck which caused sparking and flames to occur.

Renslow states that the driver of the vehicle, Errol Leon Meinecke of Jefferson was trying to unload corn when the accident happened.

The flames were eventually extinguished, but Chief Renslow comments that they were delayed getting to the vehicle fire because a passing train was blocking the road.  He explains that this was the first call they received about a fire at the two year-old plant.

“It’s the first fire call we’ve had out at the (Louis Dreyfus) ethanol plant since it’s been built.  So when we got paged to the fire at the ethanol plant, we all perked up because we didn’t know what we were going to expect because we didn’t know where it was at the time.”

Sheriff Steve Haupert reports that no one was injured in the fire and the tractor and trailer that is owned by S and J Lawler, Incorporated of Ogden sustained $32,000 in damages.