A fire on Tuesday morning, Feb. 7, at the Hillsboro Food Pantry, 10399 Business 21, was quickly extinguished, allowing the nonprofit agency to remain open, said Mary Johnson, a pantry spokeswoman.
“Our services are operating as normal,” Johnson said shortly before noon on Tuesday. “We were very lucky.”
Hillsboro Fire Chief Brian Gaudet said “a handful of people” who had been in the building got out safely and no injuries were reported.
The Hillsboro Fire Protection District got a call at 6:28 a.m. about the fire at the pantry, and firefighters extinguished the fire and left the scene by 7:15 a.m., Gaudet said.
“The damage is on the exterior,” he said. “I’d call it light damage. We did not order them to shut down.”
Gaudet said a spark from an incinerator may have caused the fire.
“They have an incinerator next to the building and were using it,” Gaudet said. “We believe some hot embers came out of the chimney and landed on pallets at the building and that started the fire. The fire got into the soffit, but we were able to stop it before it got into the attic.”
Gaudet said the district’s ability to quickly respond to the call helped keep the fire damage to a minimum.
“Obviously, it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “If we didn’t have firefighters on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the response time would have been worse and the fire could have done more damage.”
The De Soto Fire Department and the Mapaville, Goldman, De Soto Rural, Dunklin and Cedar Hill fire protections districts helped with the call. The Valle Ambulance also responded to the scene.