Fire destroys West Quincy Haymakers location on Monday
Published 2:03 pm Monday, June 15, 2026
WEST QUINCY — First responders from more than two dozen agencies responded to calls for assistance Monday afternoon at the Haymakers location in West Quincy.
“For the guys like us that are in the city, we don’t typically have water supply issues,” Quincy Fire Chief Steve Salrin said just before 3 p.m. Monday. “This is impressive. These guys know exactly what they’re doing, so as soon as they got trucks on scene, they got portable tanks set up, and we’ve not run out of water yet.”
QFD was just one department providing mutual support for the fight against the blaze. Trucks from all across the region were hammering the structure to contain the fire while tankers continued a parade in and out, filling temporary tanks with water to feed the pumpers.
Just a few of the responding departments on the scene were QFD, Tri-Township Fire Department, Palmyra Fire Department, the Missouri R-4 Fire Protection District, Western Lewis County Fire, LaGrange, Loraine, Canton, Payson-Fall Creek, and many others.
In support of the firefighters, representatives from the Quincy Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol were among the other first responders on scene.
Additionally, the Salvation Army and the QFD Rehabilitation Team had members providing drinking water and other help to the front-line responders, and the Adams County Emergency Management Agency was on hand to help coordinate all the elements.
Salrin said it’s too early to speculate on what might have caused the fire. He said employees reported smoke coming from the roof, and when firefighters were able to see the top of the building, the call was made to empty the structure. The Missouri Rural Electric Cooperative cut power to the site from the power pole directly, including to the gas and diesel pumps. Salrin said he didn’t see any sort of threat to the gas station’s underground tanks.
Most importantly, Salrin reported that as of Monday afternoon, no injuries had been reported that he was aware of.
“Everybody got out of the building,” he said. “To my knowledge, we’re not hearing about injuries to firefighters and civilians. That’s our goal right now. We’ve got a lot of vehicle traffic running around here, and I’m concerned about that, but again, these guys do this all the time, and they’re doing a great job.”
Haymakers is owned by Niemann Foods, Inc. Gerry Kettler, Niemann’s director of consumer affairs, issued a brief statement on the fire and the impact on the company’s employees.
“We are most thankful that no one was hurt,” the statement said. “We want to thank everyone for their thoughts and concerns. A big thank you (also) for the amazing community effort from the emergency and fire personnel in the surrounding area.”
The company’s statement noted that this is still a fresh, unfolding situation with a lot of unknowns and that the hope is to have a more detailed update soon. One item noted was that the company will work with employees at the West Quincy location.
“All associates will be reassigned to other area locations for the time being,” Niemann Foods said.
Just before 3 p.m., reports came in that there were a few spot fires seen in the fields immediately east of the gas station. Salrin said with as much rain as the area has seen in the past week, it was a surprise that anything could catch fire in those fields, but brush trucks responded and knocked those spot fires down quickly.
Around 3:30 p.m., some crews started pulling their gear out from the scene, though the remains of the structures were still being deluged to prevent flare-ups or hotspots from taking hold.
