BERNIE -- With temperatures in the mid 90s last Wednesday afternoon, area firefighters were closely watched as they battled a fuel tank fire for four hours.
"It was very hot," Puxico Fire Chief Stacy Starnes said in response to providing mutual aid. "Everyone worked well together."
Shortly after 1 p.m., Bernie Fire Department received a call of a diesel fuel tank fire at Highway Z and County Road 779, eight miles east of Bernie at Lowery Farms.
"As far as we can tell from the video records we have in our office, the fire began after the top blew off of a transfer pump spraying diesel everywhere," Lowery Farms CFO and partner Kerri Lowery said. "When the employee shut the pump off, it backfired igniting the diesel."
Four fuel tanks located in a containment area, mostly containing diesel fuel, caught fire causing damage to a portable trailer and truck being fueled.
Lowery also reported a few other farm vehicles and equipment and a building suffered heat damage.
She added an employee at a neighboring farm stopped to help move as much equipment as possible out of the fire danger area, for which Lowery is very thankful.
"The fire was pretty contained and far enough from other buildings that we were able to keep enough water on it to keep everyone safe," Bernie Fire Chief Leroy Stockton said.
Nine other departments were called in to provide mutual aid including Advance, Puxico, Bloomfield, Dudley, Malden, Lilbourn, New Madrid, Sikeston and Dexter.
Lowery estimated between gasoline, road diesel and farm diesel, about 20,000 gallons burned during the incident.
"It took less than one minute for the fire to go into a situation that was beyond our control for safety reasons," she said. "We are just very blessed that the employee working there was not injured at that time and it wasn't as severe as it could have been."
Stockton reported crews were on scene about four hours and three ambulance crews from Stoddard County EMS were on scene to keep a check on firefighters in the heat.
Before everyone left, Stockton said firefighters were checked as a precaution.
Starnes said teamwork between the departments allowed firefighters plenty of water breaks and time in shaded areas.
"It was such an unbearably hot day as it was, and when you combine that with the intense heat of the fire from the fuel tanks, it made for a very dangerous situation for them all," Lowery said.
The Department of Natural Resources arrived, Stockton said, before crews left the scene.
"They took over and are doing an investigation," he said.
Witnesses could reportedly see smoke from the fire in Dexter.
Lowery Farms is a row crop operation, which, according to their Facebook page, produces cotton, beans, corn and occasionally wheat.
The farm, Lowery said, has to continue to move forward as they have a crop to finish producing this year.
"We would like to thank the 10 different fire departments and the Stoddard County Ambulance and Emergency Service and all of the various police officers that came to help," Lowery said. "Also neighboring farms who helped with water and or physically working with our team to keep water on our farm shop so that we would not lose it to the fire."