LARIMORE, North Dakota — A late night fire on Nov. 30 caused an estimated $ 2 million in damage to a Hoverson Farms potato seed warehouse and its contents located in Larimore.
The Grand Forks County Sheriff's office and Larimore Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire at the warehouse at the south end of Larimore along County Road 4 at about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30. There were no employees inside the building at the time of the fire, according to the Grand Forks Sheriff's office incident report.
Carl Hoverson and his sons, Mike and Casey Hoverson, manage the 26,000-acre Hoverson Farms operation, which includes 5,400 acres of potatoes. Hoverson Farms' main operation is two miles north of Larimore at the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and North Dakota Highway 18, where several warehouses and the business office are located.
The Larimore Volunteer Fire Department extinguished the flames that were pouring out of the overhead door on the south side of the building in Larimore when it arrived on the warehouse along County Road 4, then tore down the door and sprayed water on the interior of the building, according to the incident report.
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Three employees who had been in the building an hour before the fire was reported told the sheriff's office sergeant who responded to the fire that they were having problems with the electrical system in the warehouse so they unplugged the equipment and notified their supervisor. Everything appeared normal when the employees left the warehouse, the incident report said.
The warehouse contained potato seed and several pieces of machinery, including a new truck and a skid steer loader, which Sara Hoverson, Casey Hoverson's wife, told the sheriff's office were likely destroyed in the fire. There also were multiple pieces of other damaged potato equipment, which had blackened parts on them from the fire, parked in front of another Hoverson Farms warehouse on Thursday morning, Dec. 2.
The potato seed itself is worth $1 million, Carl Hoverson said. While the loss of the seed house is "very unfortunate," Hoverson Farms will get through it and "focus on the future," he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
