Silo at Flour Mill Collapses, Discharging Wheat Everywhere

A silo at a Christchurch, New Zealand, flour mill collapsed on Sunday.

One resident across the road from Champion Flour Mills said he heard a loud bang and looked out his window to see a cloud of dust.

The area around the collapsed grain silo remained cordoned off on Monday morning, after the structure failed on Sunday evening, spewing out large quantities of wheat that damaged cars in an adjacent sales yard. A dozen vehicles at the car dealership have been damaged.

The wheat had pushed one car about 20 meters, and shoved some cars into other vehicles at Christchurch vehicle sales company Value Cars Warehouse in the suburb of Addington, yard co-owner Martin Harcourt said.

“It must have been quite a big force," he said.

Champion Flour Milling has been in business for 150 years and offers 40 types of flour.