Agencies work together on large structure fire in East Prairie
EAST PRAIRIE, Mo., (KBSI) — Fire departments from across the region responded to a large commercial fire on Main Street in East Prairie on Jan. 11, 2025.
The Portageville Fire Department was requested to assist at around 6:15 p.m. and responded with Ladder 10 and Tanker 15. Crews provided water supply and aerial operations, working to prevent the fire from spreading to adjoining buildings.
Two buildings were fully involved in the fire. Multiple departments responded to the scene, including Charleston DPS, Sikeston DPS, Scott County Rural, Matthews Fire, New Madrid Fire, and Lilbourn Fire, as well as several ambulance districts and law enforcement agencies.
Crews returned home around 11 p.m. after bringing the fire under control.
Logan White is the Assistant Fire Chief for the Matthew fire department. He says his department was dispatched to East Prairie for mutual aid on Saturday January 11 at 5:57 pm. When his crew arrived two agencies were already on scene.
He explains what the incident looked like when he arrived.
“It was two buildings. It appeared to be two stories and there was heavy fire and smoke and fire through the roof of one of the commercial buildings” says White.
The East Prairie Flower Shop was deemed a total loss, and a boutique next door received some damaged.
Due to the number of agencies called in and the size of the fire several streets were blocked off while crews worked for more than three hours to get the incident under control.
“When I arrived on scene, I met with their fire chief, East Prairies fire chief and did a face to face with him. Asked him what resources he wanted from New Madrid County which in turned was another ladder truck from the city of Portageville we had tankers, multiple tankers from Scott County rural. The city of Sikeston, the city of New Madrid, the city of Lilbourn and Portageville as well.”
Getting this fire contained largely depended on the work of many area agencies pulling together their resources. Nathan Rapert is the captain of the Minor police department. He was called in for the use of his drone.
He explains how the drone works when in assisting with fires.
“The drone has thermal image capabilities so it will show a thermal image of a live picture when I’m using the drone that will pickup different heat signatures. It has a function on this drone that will allow me to differentiate between temperatures which came in handy there. I was able to differentiate the temperatures on some of the hot spots in the fire and let them know where to focus their attention.”
No injuries have been reported at this time from Saturday’s incident. It’s unclear at this time how the fire started.
