Fire leaves Troy manufacturing plant with 'extensive damage'

A steel manufacturing plant in Troy had "extensive damage" after a fire swept through the building Sunday afternoon.

The Troy Fire Department responded to the fire at the Midwest Acorn Nut Co., 501 Executive Drive, at 11:22 a.m.

It took firefighters about two and a half hours to extinguish the flames, which Lt. Michael Koehler said raged on throughout the building and on the roof.

"We won't have the full estimate until we're able to get in there and see everything but ... the damage is definitely extensive," Koehler said.

Koehler said it's too early to determine a cause of the fire. No one was in the building at the time.

There were reports of explosions during the fire but Koehler said he could not confirm them. "We think that could just be attributed to propane that was in the building," Koehler said.

In all, more than 50 firefighters from four stations worked on the scene for more than eight hours, said Troy Fire Department Lt. Dan Mahrle.

Midwest Acorn Nut Co. specializes in manufacturing chrome, black chrome and polished stainless steel fasteners for motorcycles, hardware,cars, heavy duty trucks and the marine markets.

The building, a single-story warehouse with attached offices, contained "ordinary combustibles" such as cardboard boxes, wood pallets and plastics, according to a release by Mahrle early Monday.

The large amount of combustibles "made the fire difficult to extinguish," he said.

The company has another location on Minnesota Avenue in Troy. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.