Note: This story was updated at 4:25 p.m. July 21, 2025 with a statement from OSHA.
When a tower at its flagship facility in Decatur, Illinois, exploded in July 2024, Archer Daniels Midland’s measures to prevent grain dust explosions were not adequate, according to a federal government investigation.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation is the latest to find ADM struggling to maintain a workplace free from the risk of potentially deadly dust explosions.
Earlier this year, Investigate Midwest detailed how ADM’s safety lapses preceded a series of explosions that killed one and severely injured 15 others in the past several years.
In records recently released through a Freedom of Information Act request, OSHA said employees, realizing a fire had started in the tower, began to evacuate the facility and called the Decatur Fire Department. Video obtained from the fire department shows the explosion bursting through the top of the tower.“Luckily,” OSHA concluded, “the employees and employer had recognized the fire condition prior to the explosion event and evacuated the building. This action avoided exposure to the catastrophic effects of the explosion.”
Despite the findings and ADM’s recent history of dust explosions, OSHA did not fine the company.
The agency said in a statement it does not “strictly rely” on prior inspections to establish violations or penalties. The agency can use a “history of previous violations” to determine fines, according to its governing documents.
“OSHA must evaluate each inspection on its own merit relative to the applicability of OSHA standards, hazards identified, employees exposed and employer recognition of the hazards,” it said.
Jackie Anderson, an ADM spokesperson, said in a statement to Investigate Midwest that safety is the company’s highest priority.
“ADM’s response to last July’s incident at the Decatur East plant demonstrates the effectiveness of our efforts,” she said. “Our emergency protocols worked as intended, and no one was injured. Additionally, OSHA did not issue any citations following a thorough inspection. Instead, OSHA highlighted some recommendations for the East Plant, and we are addressing them.”
David Horn, a Decatur city councilmember who has criticized ADM over safety issues, encouraged the company to make safety investments.
“It is incumbent upon companies to do all that they can to reduce risk to employees and property,” he said in a statement to Investigate Midwest. “Explosions such as the ones that have occurred at ADM lead to serious injuries, significant property damage, and more broadly could damage the reputation of the city as a safe place for people to work.”
Facilities like ADM’s generate large amounts of dust as grain is moved quickly by conveyor belts and elevators. Any spark — which could be created by malfunctioning equipment, for example — could then set off a massive conflagration.
The 2024 explosion was ADM’s 15th overall — and the Decatur facility’s seventh — since 2018. ADM has about 200 facilities in North America, and in a given year, many of them have had no workplace safety incidents, the company has reported. However, the number of dust explosions ADM has experienced in recent years exceeds that of other companies in the industry.
The Decatur facility is ADM’s North American headquarters, which includes corporate offices.
OSHA requires facilities like ADM’s to address potential dust explosions in one of two ways: a chemical suppression system that suffocates nascent fires, or the collection of highly flammable dust generated inside the plant.
The tower, a grain elevator, was not equipped with a chemical suppression system.
“Such a system or series of systems would have likely prevented the equipment damage and building damage,” OSHA found.
The tower had a dust collector, but OSHA identified issues with it.
It was installed in 1987, and ADM could not provide OSHA with design or installation records. In the event of an explosion, the dust collector was also set up to vent flames toward “potentially occupied areas,” OSHA found.
OSHA did not determine the exact cause of the 2024 explosion. In the records provided to Investigate Midwest, the sequence of events prior to the blast is redacted. Companies can request that information deemed a trade secret be withheld from public records.
The Decatur facility has experienced a series of dust explosions in different parts of the plant since 2018.
Following one explosion in the eastern half of the plant that year, OSHA fined the company about $13,000. The agency found ADM had not implemented “preventive maintenance procedures” prior to the blast, according to records OSHA recently released to Investigate Midwest. For instance, it did not perform a regularly scheduled inspection of the chemical suppression system, and it had not developed procedures to “inspect safety … equipment.”
OSHA documented similar issues related to a 2019 blast. ADM had not analyzed the risk explosive dust posed to the Decatur facility, and, although a technician noted parts on the suppression system needed replacing, they were not.
After that explosion, ADM installed a new prevention system, but it could not provide OSHA with documentation that showed it was “operational or effective.”
Then, in 2023, two explosions again battered the facility, one on the eastern portion and another on the western side. A total of 11 people were severely injured. OSHA determined ADM had not inspected a chemical suppression system since late 2016. It also had not developed a written plan to keep the work area free of dust.
The OSHA cases related to the 2023 explosions are ongoing, as ADM contests the fines.
OSHA initially fined the company more than $300,000 for the first explosion, in April 2023, but that has been decreased to about $200,000 as ADM and the agency tussle over the amount.
In late 2024, one man injured in one of the 2023 explosions sued the company. The case was dismissed in May, according to court records.
Not all ADM facilities have documented histories of explosions.
In 2021, for instance, OSHA inspected an ADM grain storage facility in Toledo, Ohio. It’s a much smaller operation than the Decatur headquarters, but it performs similar functions and has similar equipment.
To prevent explosions, OSHA found, employees received annual training on dust explosions, performed routine maintenance and tracked when areas were cleared of dust.
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