An explosion and fire at a Nebraska plant are preventing a search for 3
missing people
[July 30, 2025]
By MARGERY A. BECK
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters in eastern Nebraska battled a fire for
hours following an explosion Tuesday at a wood pellet manufacturing
plant, but authorities said they have been unable to get close enough to
search for three people believed to be missing.
The explosion happened at the Horizon Biofuels plant, which makes animal
bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, on the south end
of Fremont, Nebraska.
Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said three individuals were in the
building, but “that's all we can say at this point,” he said in a
briefing Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re working with the state patrol as well as the state of Nebraska
and other groups to assess the building and the structure of the
building to where, again, we can be able to get in,” Spellerberg said.
Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said first responders were up against
“heavy smoke and a lot of flames" when they first arrived on scene. The
first call reporting the explosion came in just before noon, according
to Spellerberg.
Photos taken after the explosion show the top of the facility's tall
tower — marked by a distinctive sunbeam logo of the former owner, Golden
Sun Feeds — torn off, exposing mangled metal and ripped siding. Debris
littered the ground below.
The facility uses tons of wood waste to manufacture their wood fuel
pellets. An overnight fire at the building in 2014 had damaged the
electrical system but left the structure in tact, according to reporting
by the Fremont Tribune. A fire captain said at the time that the
building has a “cement structure on the outside and the metal frame is
tied into that.”
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Firefighters battle a fire after an explosion in an industrial area
in Fremont, Neb., Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Chris Machian/Omaha
World-Herald via AP)
Bernt said they believe the facility stores wood and some
alcohol-based materials.
Dodge County Attorney Pamela Hopkins, who also serves as the county
coroner, said law enforcement and first responders were busy
securing the scene Tuesday afternoon and had not yet contacted her
in her role as coroner. She added that she was hoping not to get
that call.
“Right now, we're focused on the safety of the community and getting
the situation under control — keeping the scene secure,” Hopkins
said. She declined to comment further.
Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska,
is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha, Nebraska.
The site of the explosion is surrounded by other manufacturing and
food processing plants.
Taylor Kirklin, who lives about a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from
the building, said her whole house shook Tuesday. She said the
explosion was so loud that she thought someone had driven into the
lobby of her family's dog kennel business on the property.
“I got up and looked outside and there was a huge plume of smoke,"
she said. “We were really unsure when the explosion happened which
plant it was because there are so many in that area."
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