BLAZE LEVELS OFFICE, GARAGE

A building that housed the offices and workshop of Cooper Oil Co. in South Cape Girardeau was destroyed Monday afternoon by a fire that apparently started when a hot-water heater ignited fumes from a fuel tank.

Three engines from the Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the fire, which started shortly after 3 p.m. By 3:29, all fire lines were in place. Ten minutes later, the blaze was under control but not before the building at 1301 Giboney was destroyed.

The fire began as terminal director Kenny Raines and mechanic Floyd Stephens worked in the shop on replacing a fuel pump in a pickup truck. After removing the old fuel pump from the fuel tank, the men placed the tank on the floor about 10 feet from the hot-water tank in the building, Raines said.

Stephens was treated at the scene for burns to his right arm. Raines was taken to St. Francis Medical Center where he was treated for burns to both arms and hands.

Firefighters believe fumes from the fuel tank were ignited by the pilot light of the hot-water heater.

When the fire began with what Raines described as a whoosh, Stephens escaped out the front door of the building. Raines managed to get to a telephone and dial 911. But the flames became so hot that he was unable to complete the call before having to flee through the back door.

The building was quickly engulfed in flames as the fire ignited nearly 20 truck tires stored in the building, office equipment and the company records. Several small explosions were heard, probably caused when two 55-gallon drums of diesel fuel additives caught fire.

Outside the building, Steve Brotherton, a truck driver for Cooper Oil, was sitting at a fuel pump when he noticed smoke coming from the building. Brotherton, who had just filled his tanker with fuel, pulled his truck across the street to a gasoline and diesel fuel loading facility.

"It could've been a disaster," said Raines, referring to the possibility of the fire spreading to the six fuel storage tanks across the street on Giboney.

He estimated that the storage tanks hold millions of gallons of fuel.

Mark Hasheider of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department said Monday that the fire was not unusual in the way in which it started. The gasoline vapors are heavier than the air and remain close to the ground where they are easily ignited by pilot lights, Hasheider said.

"I've seen it in other structures where people are taking out fuel tanks in garages," he said. "They don't think about the vapors."