STANTON, Mich. — A New Year’s Eve fire destroyed a large potato storage facility in Montcalm County.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at Crooks Farms, Inc. around 4 p.m. on Dec. 31 and found multiple buildings engulfed in flames, according to Day Township Fire Chief Mike Wyczesany.

“When the call came in and we got there, it was fully engulfed across the whole front side of it and already going through the potato bins,” he said. 

Six buildings – used to store potatoes, trucks, tractors and other farm equipment and connected into one large facility – were lost in the blaze. However, firefighters saved the shop and office, as well as the home occupied by Norman and Diana Crooks, who own and operate the 7,000-acre farm with their sons, John and Steve Crooks.

“We were the first engine in,” Wyczesany said. “When we got there, we assessed the scene. We moved our truck up so we could work on the north end of the storage, which was closest to the shop and home.”

Weather conditions hindered firefighters as they battled the blaze. High winds fanned the flames, and a temperature in the teens with a wind chill of around zero caused temporary icing of the pumper trucks.

“The wind pushed the fire right through the building a lot harder and faster,” Wyczesany said.

He said firefighters from 16 area departments responded to the blaze. They hauled water from the Belvidere Township Fire Department’s facility, a river, a creek and one of the farm’s nearby irrigation wells.

“We pulled tankers from all around the area to be able to haul enough water to keep an adequate supply,” Wyczesany added.

On Sunday, four days after the fire, the remains of the facility continued to smolder.

“Until they can get in there and start taking the steel and stuff off, it will do that in the potato piles,” Wyczesany said. “The potatoes have still got heat, and then there’s wood and other debris trapped in between them that is still smoldering.”

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. According to Wyczesany, the state fire marshal was due at the scene Jan. 6. He explained it may be difficult to determine a cause because of the extent of the damage, “but we should be able to come down to a location.”