The Oregon Office of the State Fire Marshal has completed the investigation into the cause of the fire on April 18 that burned down the headquarters of Azure Standard, the nation’s largest independent distributor of organic and healthy food.
No one was injured in the fire, which completely consumed the large building in Dufur, Oregon. No major interruption of service was anticipated, according to a company statement. Azure delivers food orders to Goldendale, among many other locations, by drop-offs.
It was determined the fire was not an act of arson but related to a tote of rolled corn, which was temporarily being stored at the facility.
The marshal stated the fire started in a tote of rolled corn which was being temporarily stored in a cooler at the Azure headquarters due to receiving an oversupply at the company’s warehouse. “There are two ways that it may have started,” according to the fire marshal. “Because of the high moisture content of the corn, it could have started smoldering on its own and self-combusted or the tote or corn dust could have come in close contact to a nearby electrical outlet, shorted the electrical wiring and sparked the tote of corn,” she concluded.
Azure Standard founder and CEO David Stelzer gave an update on the search for a new facility. “We have located a space about eight miles from our farm headquarters location where we will move our liquid manufacturing. We have a team working to prepare the location and hope to be up and running with our Azure branded liquid products by next week,” he stated.
“There will still be some shortages of products that we’re having difficulty sourcing, but the majority of our suppliers are getting replenishments shipped to us as quickly as they can. Our carob candy manufacturing status is still unknown, but we are working on a plan to get the production back up and running as soon as possible,” Stelzer added.