A fire at the Anheuser-Busch Metal Container Corp. plant in Arnold went to five alarms Tuesday night (Aug. 1), but employees were safely evacuated and production is expected to resume shortly, the company reported.
“I am pleased to confirm that all of our colleagues at the A-B Metal Container plant were evacuated and are safe, with no reported injuries,” said Gemma Hart, Anheuser-Busch vice president of communications, North America. “This is a testament to the team at the plant – they took our safety training seriously and executed so well when they needed to put all the training into action. We are proud of them and grateful for their tireless work through the night.”
The Rock Community Fire Protection District responded to the fire call at 42 Tenbrook Industrial Park in Arnold at 8:30 p.m., public information officer Ron Harder said.
“When we got there, smoke was inside the building and employees were being evacuated,” he said.
Harder said the plant manager told him that earlier in the day there had been a power outage but when power was restored, employees began to smell smoke in the building.
“The fire was located in and around a kiln on the third floor,” Harder said. “Then it went into the duct work.”
He said fire in the ductwork made it difficult to fight.
“It was a good-size fire and very labor intensive because it was traveling the length of the ductwork,” Harder said. “It involved searching for the fire, breaching the wall and cutting into the ductwork in order to get access to the fire.”
There was heavy smoke on the top floor, he said.
Five alarms were called and at one point there were 30 trucks on the premises of the plant, Harder said.
“One firefighter was treated for high blood pressure and heat exhaustion,” he said. “He was transported to St. Anthony’s MedicalCenter, treated and released.”
Hart said the Anheuser-Busch company appreciates the service of local firefighters.
“We are very grateful to our local fire departments who worked to contain and extinguish the fire, and confine any damage to a limited area of the plant. They did an amazing job and we want to express our gratitude for their services throughout the night,” she said.
Hart said the company is still working to assess the damage to the facility.
“We can confirm damage was limited to less than half of our can lines and our bottle lines are fully operational. We have quality and safety experts continuing to assess the plant, and are now working to get our lines back up and running, in a methodical and safe way, and we expect to be at 75 percent production within 36 hours.”
Anheuser-Busch operates 23 agricultural and packaging facilities in the United States, including the Metal Container Corporation (MCC) facility in Arnold.
“The Arnold plant manufactures 9.2 million cans per day (3.2 billion per year) and 2.5 million bottles per day (900 million per year),” the company reported. Other plants are in Jacksonville, Fla., Mira Loma, Calif., Newburgh, N.Y.; and Windsor, Colo. Lid plants are in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Riverside, Calif.”
Harder said the Arnold company’s staff did a good job of getting people out of the building and notifying the emergency responders.
“We have to take our hats off to the Metal Container Safety Crew,” Harder said. “They knew just what to do and did a great, great job.”
Fire crews began returning to their districts at about 11 p.m. and the last firetruck went back into service at about midnight, Harder said.
Harder said he did not know all of the emergency responders that helped with the call, but he is aware that the following agencies were on the scene: Mehlville, Antonia, SalineValley, Fenton, High Ridge and Dunklin fire protection districts and the Festus, CrystalCity and Herculaneum fire departments. The Kirkwood Fire Department moved up into Rock Community’s facilities.