Fire destroys Morehouse building; cause unknown

MOREHOUSE, Mo. -- The fire marshal was in Morehouse this morning to investigate a fire that broke out around 4 a.m.

Chris Beavers, secretary of the Morehouse Volunteer Fire Department, said firefighters were paged out at 4:15 a.m. to a building on the 200 block of West Beech Street. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the building, which Beavers described as a business/storage shed, was fully involved.

"It took us about two and a half hours to put it out," said Beavers. The building was a total loss, he added.

The cause is unknown.

"There were a bunch of vehicles inside, and we can't really determine what the cause of it was because the building was so badly damaged," said Beavers. The amount of gas and oil in the vehicles contributed to the size of the blaze, he pointed out.