A very smoky fire broke out in the dust chamber of a metal silo at a farmers’ co-op. Alerted by a passer-by at 9:15 p.m., the fire-fighters, assisted by the co-op’s employees, were able to bring the fire under control by emptying the dust and dousing the chamber and the filter bags of the cyclone dust collector. The first was extinguished at 9:45 p.m. As a precaution, the cleaner-separator was doused with water. As smoke was still seen coming out of the 3rd and 4th floors of the headhouse, the fire-fighters cut the main dust suction duct. A hot spot in the fan above the filter was extinguished at 11:00 p.m. One hour later, the handling equipment was doused by the fire-fighters following a survey by the silo’s employees. The fire-fighters left at 12:30 a.m. The site’s employees conducted rounds to monitor the situation until the morning. According to the operator, the fire may have been caused by a hot spot following welding work. The afternoon of the fire, a maintenance crew had replaced a flight on a Redler chain conveyor being used to turn sunflower seeds during cleaning. A hot-work permit had been obtained. No smells or smoke were noted during the inspection conducted 2 hours after the work was completed. The facility had been restarted at around 7:00 p.m. to finish cleaning the seeds. It was then that the hot spot was probably drawn into the dust collection system and ultimately into the bag filter, where it combusted slowly. To enable fire-fighters to arrive faster, the operator is looking into fitting smoke detectors in the filter room that will send an alarm signal to the site’s automated system and the phones used by the HSE manager and the regional supervisor.