Workers evacuate Quaker Oats mill after Cedar Rapids explosion

An apparent explosion set off a fire on Saturday afternoon at PepsiCo's Quaker Oats mill in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a plant that processes more than 2 million pounds of oats a day, and every worker inside got out unhurt.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department said it was called at 4:44 p.m. to the back of the facility, the side that faces away from Interstate 380, and that firefighters found signs of an explosion while they worked to put out the fire. The blaze was under control by 6:15 p.m. Crews stayed in the building after that to chase down hot spots.

The fire department said the cause of the explosion and fire is under investigation. Authorities have not said how much damage the building took, and neither PepsiCo nor the city has said whether milling has stopped or when the plant will be running normally again.

The mill and its payroll

The company's website describes the Cedar Rapids plant as the largest milling facility in the world, processing more than 2 million pounds of oats a day. KWWL described the site as the largest cereal mill in the world. The daily figure and the ranking come from the company, not from an outside body.

The plant employs between 740 and 1,000 people, according to KWWL, in a city the Associated Press put at about 140,000 residents.

Video and photographs posted to social media showed black smoke over the downtown. Viewers reported to KCRG that they heard and felt the explosion before the smoke appeared behind the plant, and KWWL reported that the response backed up traffic on Interstate 380 for more than an hour.

What firefighters found

Police and fire crews were sent to the plant, and crews arriving just before 5 p.m. found heavy smoke and flames coming from the north side of the building, KWWL reported. They called for help from Marion, Hiawatha and Linn County, along with area ambulance services.

The fire began in a part of the plant where products move back and forth and few employees work, Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell said in a Facebook video from the scene. She called that a blessing in this case. It is not clear how many people were in the building when the explosion happened.

Most of the fire had been put out by 6:25 p.m., the fire department said, with limited work continuing inside on final suppression and overhaul, and no firefighters were hurt.

The fire department said all plant workers had been accounted for by 5:30 p.m., less than an hour after the first call. KWWL said all workers who needed to leave were accounted for and that no one was hurt. O'Donnell, posting from the scene, called the absence of injuries the headline of the evening.

Both hospitals in the city brought in extra support in case it was needed, KWWL reported, and it was not required. O'Donnell praised the responding crews and said the incident showed the value of the training and preparation emergency workers put in.

The company's account

PepsiCo Foods US, which owns the plant, issued a short statement on Saturday evening confirming that all employees were accounted for and saying the cause of the fire would be investigated.

The statement gave no damage estimate and said nothing about the plant's output or schedule. It did not identify the part of the mill where the fire started, and it set no date for findings. The company has not said how many people normally work in that part of the building or whether crews were due on shift.

This evening a fire started at the Quaker facility in Cedar Rapids. Details of how the fire started will be investigated. We can confirm all employees are accounted for and we are grateful to the first responders who continue to operate at the facility.

The Quaker Oats brand, by way of the Quaker Mill Company, turns 150 years old in 2027, the Associated Press reported. PepsiCo owns the brand and the Cedar Rapids plant, and it did not say on Saturday whether the fire would affect the supply of any Quaker product.

Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, wrote on X on Saturday that he had been alerted to the fire at Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids and was praying for the safety of people in or near the building and for the first responders at the scene.

Open questions at the mill

No determination of what caused Saturday's explosion at the Quaker Oats mill in Cedar Rapids had been announced by that evening. The fire department has not named who is conducting the investigation or said how long it will take.

What the fire did to the mill's capacity is unknown. The figure of more than 2 million pounds a day is the company's own measure of normal operation, and PepsiCo has not said whether any of that volume stopped on Saturday or what the fire did to the equipment in that part of the building.

Neither the company nor the city has said publicly whether any of the plant's workers will lose shifts or pay while the affected section is assessed.

Terror, sadness, worry. Explosions are bad, fires are bad. Quaker Oats is a staple of this town so, we don't want them to blow up.

Gardner told the station that seeing the smoke gave him goosebumps. Emilio Esquivel, a man from Texas, told KCRG that he looked out a window and saw dark smoke, and that the sight was like a movie scene.

Videos and photographs circulating online appeared to show significant damage to the section of the facility where the fire started. Officials have not released an assessment of the building, and the fire department did not describe the structure's condition on Saturday night.

Updates on Saturday came through Facebook, where the fire department posted its releases and O'Donnell recorded video outside the plant. KWWL reported that she was at the scene while crews worked. The company's account of the evening has been limited to the written statement it issued.

Still to be determined

No one has set a date for a finding on what caused the explosion, and PepsiCo has not said when the mill will return to its normal schedule.