Pallet company fire considered suspicious

Editor's Note: The date of a double fire still being investigated has been corrected below to April 2014.

BLODGETT, Mo. -- The state fire marshal's office is investigating a suspicious fire at Pallet Connection and Farms just outside Blodgett in Scott County.

"There's some things that seem out of the ordinary," Missouri Division of Fire Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell said.

Pallet Connection owner Karrie Casey said she believes the fire was arson after being told a neighbor had seen a white truck leave the property Wednesday morning.

The Scott County Rural Fire Protection District responded to the call about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Chief Jeremy Perrien described the fire as fast-moving because of a cool wind. It quickly spread from its estimated start in the middle of a lot of pallets -- several thousand, Perrien said -- to a building, damaging the structure, a camper and two trailers filled with pallets.

Eleven other area fire departments, including from Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, responded to the fire.

"It was hot," New Hamburg-Benton-Commerce Rural Fire Protection District firefighter Trey Crader said. "I could see the glow from Benton."

Pallet Connection driver Tom Miller said an air compressor and saw were damaged, although the fire was reduced to smolders when he arrived at 6:30 a.m.

Barbara Lowe owns the building but said she does not know how much damage was caused, adding she had contacted her insurance carrier. Lowe also was directed to talk to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

"We're still in business, I'm guessing," Miller said.

Casey said the fire caused about $350,000 worth of damage.

Perrien said there have been other fires at Pallet Connection in the past six months, with the largest occurring June 5. That fire also started in the same section of the property.

O'Connell said the fire marshal's office still is investigating a possible arson at Pallet Connection in April 2014. In that incident, which happened at 5:21 a.m., two fires erupted in an exterior storage lot. One occurred in metal cages used to store cut wood and the other was in a stack of pallets.

Casey said neighbors have complained to the Department of Natural Resources about Pallet Connection's burning practices in the past. Pallet Connection and the agency are engaged in an ongoing lawsuit, Casey said. A DNR representative did not respond to a request for comment.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 62 Day Drive, Sikeston, Mo