By Geri McShane and Tim Engstrom, staff editors

CLARKS GROVE &8212; Lightning struck Watonwan Farm Service&8217;s primary grain elevator Monday evening in Clarks Grove, causing a short-lived fire and busting a hole in the east side.

Soybeans and corn poured from the gaping hole. The 350,000-bushel elevator has two silos within it. The silo with soybeans was not as full as the one with corn, so the soybean silo emptied rapidly while corn poured and poured while people stood in the streets and watched as the sun set on this town of 719 people.

Linda Gunderson of Independence Avenue said she saw the lightning strike and a big ball of fire shortly before 7 p.m. Monday. The WFS address is 201 Main St. W.

&8220;The house shook,&8221; she said. &8220;It was so high I knew it had to be the elevator. So I called 911.&8221;

Just about everyone called the emergency line. Workers in the grain elevator did, and so did Donn Smith, an ex-fireman who was sitting on his porch on Independence Avenue watching the storm when it happened.

&8220;I never seen a lightning bolt that big,&8221; he said. &8220;It looked like a miniature atom bomb.&8221;

Smith said he called 911 and then headed down Second Street Southwest to get a good look. Union Pacific tracks align the west side of the grain elevator. The hole on the east side is where a metal chute for loading freight cars was. The main tracks are just far enough to the east to avoid the streaming grain.

He said a train passed by and the engineer likely witnessed the grain pouring out. After that, authorities closed the tracks.

Fire crews from all over Freeborn County arrived: Clarks Grove, Glenville, Hollandale, Geneva, Albert Lea Township, Hartland, to name a few. A ladder truck from Glenville &8212; supplied with water from tanker trucks of many departments &8212; sprayed water on the corn as it poured out to keep the grain dust wet. Grain dust is flammable.

Ray Hanson lives on Second Street Southwest and can see the elevator from his kitchen window. He worked there from 1958 to 1986 and said the structure was built in 1973.

He said there was a big flash &8220;and then kaboom. It had a loud boom.&8221; The thunder and explosion of the side of the elevator shook the neighborhood, he said.

The damage comes days after WFS finished a 680,000-bushel steel grain bin to the south. Hanson said the construction crane was put away a week or two ago and the crews seemed to have finished the conveyor belt from the main elevator to the new bin earlier Monday.

Hanson said WFS planned to tear down an old wood-and-corrugated steel elevator to the north. It was built in 1958. WFS has several operations in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. The company is based in Truman.

The roof of the Clarks Grove grain elevator appeared to be severely damaged &8212; pieces of it could be seen sticking out over the side and the rail was warped. An overhead metal door on the side of the upper part of the elevator was blown apart, too. The Christmas star, however, looked intact.

Glenna Kristy, who lives on Third Street Southwest, said she heard a lot of thunder and saw a lot of lightning when the thunderstorm moved through the town. &8220;Then I heard a huge noise and saw a big light and the house shook,&8221; Kristy said. &8220;I told my son, &8216;That had to be the grain elevator.&8217;&8221;

When they looked outside, they could see a fireball at the top of the elevator. &8220;We saw a hole in the side and grain coming out,&8221; she added.

Tedd Baumgardt, who lives next door to Kristy, said he &8220;had never experienced such a roll of thunder. I realized then what I had heard was an explosion.&8221;

It was raining hard at that point, about 6:50 p.m., but Baumgardt realized he was seeing smoke and could smell it as well.

Neighbors gathered outside to have a look, but those in three-block area were told to leave their homes until things had stabilized, Baumgardt said.

&8220;We didn&8217;t know how long that would be,&8221; he said.

Officials feared the structure could topple. Baumgardt learned about 9 p.m. that he and his wife, Judy, could return to their home.

Meanwhile, down at the Clarks Grove Fire Station, firemen&8217;s auxiliary members were busy preparing sandwiches for the many departments who came to offer mutual aid.

Lettie Ann Anderson, a charter member of the auxiliary, said the group last gathered for a barn fire a number of years ago.

&8220;The worst was the lumberyard fire,&8221; she said.

By 8:55 p.m., auxiliary members learned many of the mutual aid departments were being sent home. A WFS employee said he and his coworkers planned to work late into the night on the cleanup.

The east side of the structure had a crack running up and down the exterior but was not deep enough to penetrate to the silo inside. Firefighters wet the outside of the elevator on all sides.

Read the Tribune on Wednesday for further coverage.