An explosion at a Riceland facility in Stuttgart on Thursday evening left three workers with minor injuries and caused "significant" damage to a structure, a spokesman for the company said Friday.
The explosion happened about 5:20 p.m. at a building used to store rough and milled rice, according to Riceland spokesman Kevin McGilton. McGilton said the company believes the blast was caused by an accumulation of grain dust accompanied by some sort of spark.
The facility uses equipment to minimize and capture that dust and clean it out of the air, but McGilton said "these things do happen. It's just one of the hazards of handling rough grain and the dust that that grain produces."
McGilton described the injuries workers suffered as "very minor" and not life-threatening. Workers were treated and released, according to a news release issued Friday by the company.
Damage to the building was "significant," although the spokesman said he wasn't immediately sure what impact it would have on operations.