Campfire ignites Mexico storage building

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A fire made by someone camping in a Mexico, Missouri, storage building to cook and keep warm led to a blaze that destroyed the building Saturday, authorities say.

Firefighters were sent to the Handi-Shop property in the 500 block of East Liberty Street a little before 7 a.m. Saturday, according to a release from the Mexico Department of Public Safety. They found a burning storage building with wooden pallets, cardboard bales and plastic storage containers on the property.

Shop staff worked with firefighters to remove items from the building and put out the fire, the release says.

Investigators later determined that Devin M. Heinz, 36, of Mexico, had broken into the building to sleep and had started an open fire and used a propane camping grill, the release says. Police arrested him on suspicion of first-degree trespassing, second-degree arson and resisting arrest.

Heinz was booked into the Audrain County Jail, police said. No one was hurt in the fire but the storage building was destroyed.