Multiple departments responded to a three-alarm fire early this morning (Sept. 25) at the Anheuser-Busch InBev Metal Container Corp. plant in Arnold.
Rock Community Fire Protection District Chief Jeff Broombaugh said the fire was reported at 3:05 a.m. at the plant, 42 Tenbrook Industrial Park. The building had two fires in August 2017.
“We struck a third alarm for manpower,” Broombaugh said. “The fire (this morning) was pretty much contained to a machine (on a second-story floor in the building). It got into the ductwork a little bit. The last time, it was pretty manpower intensive, chasing it into the ducts. They (Anheuser-Busch) have made some improvements in that plant since the last time there was a fire, and it aided us in getting it put out quicker than last time.”
Broombaugh said the fire was contained in about two hours, and workers were allowed to reenter the building and resume operations at about 8 a.m.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Broombaugh said.
There were no reported injuries.
Broombaugh said Saline Valley, Antonia, Mehlville and Dunklin fire protection districts along with the Herculaneum Fire Department were among the agencies that assisted on the call. Rock Township Ambulance District also assisted.
The plant had two fires in a 15-day period in August 2017. No one was hurt in either of those fires, which started in a kiln – used in the manufacturing of metal cans – both times.
Broombaugh said he didn’t know the function of the machine that caught fire this morning.
The first fire in August of 2017 shut the plant down for a couple of days, while the second fire caused minimal damage and work was able to resume soon after the fire was extinguished.
In 2016, Anheuser-Busch completed a $160 million expansion of the plant that doubled production of aluminum bottles from 1,200 per minute to 2,400 a minute. The plant is 480,000 square feet.
The plant manufactures 9.2 million cans per day (3.2 billion per year) and 2.5 million bottles per day (900 million per year).