A three-alarm fire Monday evening into Tuesday morning heavily damaged the Krupp family’s Owensville-based injection molding business, The Toolroom, Inc.

Heavy rainfall and intense lightning rolled into the region just before 7 p.m. which resulted in a brief power outage across Owensville, and a fire alarm call to a local nursing home. 

Owensville’s volunteer firemen were leaving the nursing home alarm when they were notified around 8:24 p.m. of fire at the plastics manufacturing at 1009 Commercial Drive in the north industrial park.

Fire was initially contained to the eastern manufacturing bay of the plant, according to Owensville Fire Chief Jeff Arnold who was back on the scene mid-Tuesday morning as Owensville firemen extinguished hot spots along the north side of the west end of the building, adjacent to the former Rock Island rail bed. 

“Fire was in the east bay in several areas and they got it put out,” Arnold said as a Toolroom employee used a skid steer to remove melted plastic products from the heavily damaged warehouse on the plant’s west side.

Finished product including pallets of plastic 5-gallon buckets and lids were among melted debris being removed from the west end of the building.

Arnold said firemen were beginning to leave the scene around 11 p.m. when firemen noticed signed of fire moving “up high” from the east to the west side of the building.

“It must have got through some man doors we couldn’t see through, or around, and spread down and made extension into the warehouse on the west side,” said Arnold. There, the fire found finished plastic products as a new fuel source.

According to Arnold, lightning reported in the area around 7 p.m. was being considered as a factor in the cause of the fire but for now it was being classified as “undetermined” by the investigator from the Missouri State Fire Marshal’s Office who was on the scene earlier.

Shortly before 7 p.m., a resident behind the plant living on Old Highway 19 said his windows shook from a nearby lighting strike. Minutes later, firemen were called to Gasconade Manor — where a family member of his works — for a report of smoke in the building.

Arnold said Owensville firemen were dispatched to the Manor at 6:42 p.m. for a smoke alarm sounding. The report was for the “strong odor of smoke” and residents were evacuated to the rear of the building in the dining room. No breakers were tripped and firemen reset the alarm after checking the roof and finding no damage.

About a half hour later, at 8:24 p.m. Arnold said they received the call to the Tool Room.

The fire department noted flames were through the roof when the first call came in and were visible from Walmart. Firemen from Owensville, Gerald-Rosebud, Bland, Belle, and Beaufort-Leslie responded to the initial call which was upgraded to a second alarm by 9:10 p.m. with firemen responding from Linn, Sullivan, Union, Bourbon and Steelville either to the scene or to cover bases in Owensville and Gerald, according to an Owensville Fire Department report.

Ambulance personnel from the Osage Ambulance District also responded to the district line to assist since Owensville Area Ambulance District personnel who were on scene at the fire.

At 10:27 p.m., the alarm was declared under control, according to the report.

That changed, however, said Arnold, as members of the Beaufort-Leslie fire crew were departing.

The OFD report noted an explosion was reported at 10:56 p.m. on the back side of the building. The fire was upgraded around 11:15 p.m. to a third alarm for additional equipment and manpower and firemen from Vienna, Morrison, Boles, Washington, New Haven-Berger and St. Clair responded either to the scene or as move ups. Firemen from Eureka also responded to the call for manpower.

Firemen from a neighboring community were heading home early Tuesday morning when a fire call came in at 4:15 a.m. from a residence in the 3400 block of Pump Station Road. Arnold said a crew from out of town which was in town for the Toolroom fire “knocked it down right away.” No one was injured in the fire and a cause of faulty wiring was cited.

The firm was founded in 1978 by Karl Krupp, Jr., and the family cites injecting molding experiences dating back to 1946 in the company’s online profile. In the 1980s the firm made rubber injection molds for the automotive sealing systems industry. In the 2000s the company expanded to create precision machining for the aerospace industry which led to The Toolroom, Inc., receiving the Supplier of the Year for Outside Manufacturing award from Boeing in 2009.