Chief Tommy George of the Savannah Rural Fire Protection District tells us nearly half of his department spent about eight hours putting out a huge fire Wednesday at the FCI Marketing facility at 18872 US 169 Highway north of St Joseph.

The fire was reported at about 6:25 am. By the time the first units arrived, the large building was fully involved in flames.  They were finally able to return to the station by about 2:30pm Wednesday.

 

The firefighting effort included nearly 30 firefighters from Savannah and the Cosby/Helena Fire Protection District, all of them volunteers. There were seven trucks from Savannah and two from Cosby/Helena.

Mr George says they poured an estimated 45,000 gallons of water on the blaze. Crews had to shuttle water to the scene from fire hydrants in the nearby Indian Hills neighborhood.

Chief George says the fire offered a lot of problems making it a difficult fire to put out. FCI markets tire repair equipment and material, so the building was full of tires and other highly flammable inventory that can be tough to extinguish. Mr George says the roof collapsed, which prevented them from fighting the fire from inside the building.  The building, and its contents, were destroyed.  There were no injuries.

The fire chief offered his thanks to the American Red Cross, which brought out coffee, pizza and doughnuts for the firefighters.

The Missouri State Fire Marshall’s Office also responded, and a representative was expected to return Thursday to investigate the cause of the fire.’