Officials confident Bunceton will rebound after loss of business in fire

The Bunceton community is working to clean up the damage from a fire that destroyed the Missouri Better Bean plant on West Main Street Saturday.

Cooper County officials are hopeful the economic impact from the loss of the business will be short.

A Missouri Better Bean plant employee said about five or six people worked at the plant.

“It will be a temporary impact in a small community like that where there’s not all that many businesses, certainly that’s a bigger percentage of employment,” said Don Baragary, Cooper County Commissioner. “Hopefully they will rebuild bigger and better.”

The employee told ABC 17 News plant employees were working all day Sunday to clean up after the fire. The office building was about the only part of the plant that was not completely destroyed from the fire.

Baragary said he believes the Bunceton community will work together to rebuild what was lost in the fire. He said the Bunceton Community Better Association will be a good source of support.

“They’re really trying to pull together to help the community and I’m sure if there’s any available funding out there that can help them do that, we’ll certainly be glad to try to help them secure that,” Baragary said.

Ryan Reuter, Cooper County Fire Division Chief, said fire crews remained at the scene until about 9 Saturday night. He said the state fire marshal arrived to begin the investigation.

As of Sunday evening, there were no new updates from the investigation. The cause of the fire has still not been determined.