Spirit of ’76 Fireworks warehouse in Boonville catches fire, no injuries reported
BOONVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ)
The vice presidents of operations of Spirit of '76 Fireworks confirmed the warehouse in the 1600 block of Mid-America Industrial Drive in Boonville caught fire on Monday afternoon.
VP of Operations John Walker said no one was hurt and everyone was able to get out of the building safely.
An ABC 17 News reporter was able to hear fireworks going off at the scene.
Walker at the scene said the business was alerted around 1 p.m. Monday that fire alarms were going off and found a fire contained to one area. Walker said the fire was contained to one area of the building.
A cause of the fire was not known as a Monday afternoon. Walker said it appeared that the sprinkler system went off as it was supposed to, and that 20 employees were working in the building at the time.
No injuries were reported.
The fire was still burning as of 6:20 p.m. Firefighters have not been able to go inside the building because conditions are not safe, according to Cooper County Fire Protection District Lt. William Johnson. Firefighters are expecting to be on the scene until 10 p.m. It will likely take days to determine the cause of the fire, Johnson said.
"We are on the scene of a working structure fire at Spirit of 76 fireworks. This is mutual aid to Boonville Fire," the Cooper County Fire Protection District wrote on its Facebook page.
Laurie Little works at the Holiday Inn on Mid-America Industrial Drive near the warehouse.
Little said she was at work at the time, when she remembers hearing a 'pop,pop,pop' and seeing an "explosion" in the sky when she looked out the window. She said she soon recognized the sound as fireworks because her family used to own a fireworks company, but it was concerning at first.
"It was scary at first because I was like if somethings exploding in that building and there's the capacity to just keep exploding we're not too far away from that," Little said. "So, you know it was a little bit unnerving at first but then you know I thought at the time it's gotta be fireworks because once the initial explosion kinda cleared... right like you could see it more drifting off like firework smoke."
ABC 17 News is working to learn more information. Check back for updates.
