Prince George, B.C.-   The smoldering pellets in a silo at Pacific Bioenergy in Prince George, are finally out.

The incident  was first noted  a week ago,  when Pacific Bioenergy staff detected a problem in the  storage silo.   Some of the pellets had  started  to smolder.

Staff  went into emergency response mode,  contacted  Prince George Fire Rescue  and  started removing pellets from the silo in order to ensure  all smoldering pellets could be  properly extinguished.

That process continued until this morning. In all,   it is estimated  3000 tonnes of pellets were removed from the storage silo.

Significant amounts of water were injected into the silo this morning in an effort to fully extinguish any remaining smoldering. Shawn Bells, Vice President, Operations for Pacific Bioenergy describes the  process “As we removed the pellets,  inert gas was injected into the silo to reduce the risk of additional complications with the extinguishment process. We concluded this morning that the smolder event posed no further significant risk. We began clean-up procedures and continue to remove the remaining saturated material.”

Bells says a  thorough investigation into what started the incident will start soon.