A dramatic fireball destroyed M & E Seed and Grain Co. in Prosser and left one person with burns.

“A smoldering pile of twisted metal and charred lumber was all that remained Thursday morning after firefighters battled the blaze in downtown Prosser all night. A few firefighters remained at the scene to monitor the fire,” Yakima Herald-Republic reports.

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“We’re getting many calls of the grain elevator just exploded …” emergency dispatchers told police initially.

From Yakima Herald-Republic:

The fireball lit up the area and sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky over the Lower Yakima Valley. About 22 fire units from various fire agencies through the valley were called out to the old feed store and grain elevator where flames could be seen shooting into the air. Firefighters closed 7th Street and Stacey Avenue while they battled the flames from the ground and from aerial ladder trucks.

Prosser resident Ben Berg told the Herald he was sitting in his house when he turned and saw the blaze.

“I ran out to go look at it,” he said. Just then he heard the sirens arriving. City Administrator Thomas Glover told the Tri-City Herald on Thursday that he could feel the heat from the flames a block away. The building came crashing to the ground about two hours after the fire started. Firefighters were still putting water on the fire until the early morning hours.

The largely wooden elevator and storefront date back to the 1920s, according to the Benton County Assessor’s Office.

Several people remembered visiting the feed store attached to the elevator. “I grew up getting feed there for years — my mom loved that place. Terrible and sad,” one commenter said on Facebook. The feed store had been converted into The Rumor Mill Antiques, Glover told the Herald. According to the store’s Facebook page, it was one of their employees who was hurt.

It’s unclear if the elevator in central Prosser is currently in use. According to the Benton County Assessor’s Office, M & E Seed & Grain Company still owns the property, which was valued at $122,000. The business is also still registered with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office. A cause of the fire remains unknown. Prosser is the Benton County seat about 30 miles west of the Tri-Cities along Interstate 82. M & E Seed and Grain Co. in Prosser is part of the Farm Product Raw Material Merchant Wholesalers Industry, according to a Dun & Bradstreet website.

This isn’t the first major fire at a Prosser food processing facility.

In May 2021, a Prosser butcher shop was destroyed, damaging the city hall and police station.

They’re calling it “the perfect storm” for food banks and food pantries.

Inflation is up, donations are down, and more people need food. With schools letting out for summer, many American kids face going hungry, without school breakfast or lunch.

And food prices keep rising.

Food banks serving the poor are seeing empty shelves, just as more people need their services.

Watch this report from San Antonio (transcript of highlights below):

From the video:

Steve Spriester: “Scarcity on the shelves and worries about what’s to come – the San Antonio Food Bank says they are bracing for the busiest time of year – and look at these empty shelves. They are especially concerned for kids.”

Myra Arthur: “According to the food bank, inflation is causing more people to reach out and ask for help. However, donations of food are down.”

Food bank official: “If you walk through our warehouse, you could almost see from one end to the other through the shelves because it’s mostly empty of the non-perishable food items … the gains that people made in their wages have been eroded. Our numbers are actually up from where they were in December.”

According to this report, food banks are hurting in Florida, too (transcript of highlights below):

From the video:

Anchor: “Food banks and food pantries in our area — they are in a bind right now. Many are running out of the food that they so desperately need to help people… They’re running out of time too.”

Adaure Achumba: “These shelves are normally stacked and filled with all kinds of non perishable food items. But as we head towards the summer months, if they’re not replenished, they’ll stay empty, leaving many families without food.”

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall is warning a “worldwide famine” is coming in the wake of war in Ukraine and rising input prices:

“This will be a worldwide famine. I think it will be even worse next year than this year . . . I think American farmers are doing their best to respond, but we can’t get fertilizer. The fertilizer prices have quadrupled. Diesel food has doubled. So many of the fertilizers and the herbicides we can’t even get right now.”

When will it end?

The World Bank forecasts global food prices will keep rising until the end of 2024.

To get through the troubling times ahead, it’s best to:

— stock up the pantry

— plant a garden

— get to know local farmers

Another way, for those who can afford it, is to stock up on long-lasting ’emergency food.’

‘Emergency food’ means food kits that last a long time — some for as long as 30 years.

If you want to explore the world of emergency food, millions of American families have already ordered from MyPatriotSupply.com (ordering through this link and the links below benefits We Love Trump).

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