By Sarah Day, Fairmont Sentinel

BLUE EARTH &8212; People driving through Blue Earth Thursday saw smoke and flames pouring out of the Kerry Group plant after 2 p.m. and through the night.

Firefighters from Blue Earth, Winnebago, Fairmont and Truman responded to a call of a large fire in the warehouse at Kerry. It is unknown how the fire will impact the more than 200 plant workers &8212; whether the plant will be rebuilt or closed. The plant manager declined to comment Thursday.

Blue Earth City Councilman Glenn Gaylord said the fire would devastate the town.

&8220;This is going to hurt the city,&8221; he said. &8220;A lot of people have jobs here.&8221;

Mayor Rob Hammond was mostly at a loss for words.

&8220;Kerry&8217;s a big part of our community,&8221; he said. &8220;So we want to see them get back on their feet if they can.&8221;

When firefighters began arriving, employees had been evacuated, with no apparent injuries.

Blue Earth Fire Chief Terry Campbell said that at this time he is unsure why the fire started, but he does know it started near the center of the warehouse.

&8220;There was a lot of heavy smoke,&8221; Campbell said.

Firefighters concentrated on pushing the fire from west to east so the office section of the building would not sustain damage. The fire was contained in the warehouse.

Campbell confirmed that the company did not have emergency water sprinklers installed.

At about 5 p.m., all firefighters were called back, and the cement outer structure began cracking and charring. Fire began peaking through the cracks of the building shortly after a call for everyone to back away. Because of the intensity of the fire, firefighters never made it more than about 50 feet into the building &8212; with crews battling to enter the building for more than two hours.

&8220;The wall started to crack due to excessive heat,&8221; Campbell said. &8220;We have no idea how long this is going to take. I think we&8217;re on the right track.&8221;

A structural engineer was called in shortly after the cracking.

At 6:45 p.m., radios squawked, reporting that firefighters were going to take down a piece of the north wall and that there may be a large fireball shooting out of the east side. The wall came down without a fireball, but gave firefighters a good look of what was going on inside: Fire engulfed the expanse of the warehouse.

&8220;I can see halfway through the building,&8221; a voice on the radio said. &8220;It&8217;s just solid.&8221;

Near 7 p.m., those near radios heard that the concrete panels of the roof were starting to sag on the northeast end.

The roof began to fall through and sparks and flames of every color began flying above the building. Mountains of debris and metal smoldered, burned and dripped. Damp and charred cardboard boxes sat on loading dock 5 waiting to be shipped.

A report of a small explosion near the loading dock on the southeast end came in at 8:13 p.m. Shortly thereafter, the northeast wall made loud cracking noises and collapsed outward.

Several fire tankers reported running empty on water and, at 8:19, Frost and Elmore fire departments were paged for tankers.

At 9:55 p.m., tankers and water were requested from the Granada Fire Department.

Near the close of the night, thousands of gallons of water had been poured into the building. The fire was still going.

Kerry Group bought the company from Nuvex in April 2006 for $83 million. The company produces dry cereal and other consumable goods.