Mulch company ‘lost their entire stock’ after multiacre fire

A multiacre fire on Monday destroyed the entirety of Oldcastle Lawn and Garden’s mulch stock — including materials already bagged by the Sauget company for resale in local stores.

Sauget Fire Captain Cory Ellis said crews — from at least 14 fire departments — were done working by 4 a.m. Tuesday. He noted, though, that company employees were still out moving tractors around and looking for hotspots on the Queeny Avenue property.

“Everything in their yard burnt, they lost their entire stock,” the captain said.

“We used a lot of tankers because we didn't have a water supply when we went into the yard,” Ellis added as to why 14 departments were called to the scene.

Ellis said his crews are on standby in case the flames flare up again on the more than 10 acres that burned on the 20-to-25-acre property.

“We are rehabbing all of our equipment — cleaning it and preparing it to go back out there for any hot spots,” Fireman Kyle Burnett said.

No injuries were reported during the fire.

Jason Phillips, plant manager, told the BND on Monday that high winds cut through the mulch piles, adding enough oxygen to ignite the wood.

“We’ve had small ones before,” Phillips said Monday. “But this is definitely by far one of the biggest ones we’ve had.”

Reporter Kaley Johnson contributed to this story.

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Mulch company ‘lost their entire stock’ after multiacre fire."