T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER — A Bitcoin mining facility located west of Grundy Center endured extensive damage due to a fire on Sunday evening. The Grundy Center, Holland and Wellsburg fire departments all responded to the blaze.
GRUNDY CENTER — Grundy County fire crews responded to a fire at a Bitcoin-mining facility west of Grundy Center on Sunday night.
Firefighters from Wellsburg, Holland and Grundy Center responded to a call at the MiningStore facility located just north of the Highway 14/175 junction about eight miles west of Grundy Center at approximately 6:15 p.m. Sunday night, according to Grundy County Emergency Management Coordinator Chase Babcock.
Babcock added that, when crews arrived on the scene, fire had already vented through the top of the hoop building on the property.
According to MiningStore’s website, the industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining facility, which uses energy generated from a partnership with the Grundy County Rural Electric Cooperative, had 1,700 crypto-mining computers with nine on-site engineers maintaining the on-site servers. Babcock said no injuries were reported at the scene.
MiningStore, a Texas-based company, opened the Grundy County facility in 2020. A representative from MiningStore could not be reached for comment at press time on the extent of the damage to the mining site or future plans for the location.
