Sikeston business goes up in flames: Irrigation Central building destroyed

SIKESTON Mo. (KBSI) – An early morning wakeup call in Sikeston as red and orange flames flying in the air off Highway 61.

People noticed and reported the fire around 4 in the morning on Sunday September 29.

Ash and rubble are all that remain of the sunken building.

Owners of Irrigation Central in Sikeston received the call for Sikeston Fire Department that one of their buildings was on fire. 

Irrigation Central owns several buildings off Highway 61 and only one was impacted. 

General Manager Ryan Bateman says what he knows so far about this fire and where he is taking it from here. 

“The owners also got the call that they were there within 15 or 20 minutes. I was there a little later in the morning at that point the fire trucks just now started getting there. So, I believe he had called us when he got the call out to the fire,” said Bateman. 

Irrigation Central has been in business for over 20 years and has not had issues.

Workers of Irrigation Central say they have no idea how the fire started and are waiting to hear back from the Fire Department on their findings. 

“At this time, we know they are working on probably getting us a report or something of some sort but at this point we have still not heard from them or talked to them yet,” said Bateman.

Sikeston Fire Department is still investigating, says Bateman, while he waits, he contacts the insurance agencies to go over the cost of everything he himself and the company has lost. 

“There was nobody hurt or injured there was nobody on the premises at that time. That is just a building where we store our equipment, trucks, and trailers. No one was hurt so all that was lost was just some equipment,” said Bateman. 

The General Manager Ryan Bateman says the employees of Irrigation Central have lost their vehicles, equipment, and even personal belongings such as boats and campers they will never get back.