FIRE crews promptly contained a fire at an animal feed manufacturing plant at Millicent around dawn on Sunday and limited the damage bill to around $10,000.
Emergency services were summoned at 5.38am to the premises of Pristine Animal Nutrition Products on Saleyards Road and volunteer firefighters donned breathing apparatus to battle the flames.
The Country Fire Service sent two of its Millicent trucks to the blaze as well as the Mount Burr Brigade.
CFS brigades at Glencoe and Argyle were placed on standby, but were not required.
Wattle Range CFS group officer Fred Stent said the fire was contained within 30 minutes.
He said firefighters remained at the plant until 9am to assist with the clean-up.
According to Mr Stent, the likely cause of the blaze was spontaneous combustion.
No toxic smoke was released, but it was CFS protocol to issue a public warning to Millicent residents about the cause of the smoke.
Mr Stent said the damage bill was calculated in terms of the affected pallets as well as animal feed that had been left unusable.
Pristine Animal Nutrition Products Millicent manager Nick Robbins said the damage bill might rise as raw materials were also damaged.
Mr Robbins said it was business as usual at the plant, which has a workforce of three.
He said insurance assessors and senior company management were due to inspect the premises in the near future.
“There was no structural damage and the manufacturing line was unaffected,” Mr Robbins said.
Pristine Animal Nutrition Products is located between Wattle Range Council’s cattle saleyards and the new 3MP manufacturing facility, which is presently under construction.
Formerly known as Aerogold, an animal feed facility has operated on the site for over 25 years.
