Paint booth in local manufacturing company catches fire

A metal paint booth inside of a Robbins & Myers production plant on 1895 West Jefferson Street caught fire Wednesday night, forcing an evacuation of the building but no apparent injuries.

At 9:10 p.m., Springfield Fire Department received a call from employees after they had tried to extinguish the fire themselves, said Springfield Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Marc Lloyd.

When that failed, the employees closed the metal doors to the paint booth and left the building.

By the time the fire rescue department responded, the paint booth’s built-in extinguishing system had put out some of the fire, and firefighters worked on the rest.

No one was injured, Lloyd said.

The cause of the fire is unknown, but the fire rescue department will investigate after clean up, Lloyd said.

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