A fire broke out Tuesday morning in an exhaust stack of the southeast quadrant of the Streater Inc. building in Albert Lea.

There was minimal damage, mostly to the roof, and no one was injured. Streater Inc. makes store fixtures such as shelves and cases.

Streater Human Resources Director Kevin Davis said the 411,000-square-foot building has two paint lines and both have bake ovens that burn natural gas to dry the paint. The stacks dissipate the heat.

Albert Lea Fire Department Capt. Lee DeVries said the stack above the southeast paint line became hot and the heat transferred to roof flashing around the stack, catching roofing material on fire.

The fire call came at 10:24 a.m., with firefighters arriving at 10:27. DeVries said the fire was under control by about 10:45 a.m. and the fire trucks left at noon.

Davis said a building and roofing contractor will come today and advise Streater officials on replacing the stack and repairing the roof.

“What we are going to do is tear the whole thing out,” David said.

The stack is 25 years old, he said, and had never had a problem before. Davis said Streater will review its policies and procedures.

Streater has 85 employees and one of the largest buildings in Albert Lea. Later Tuesday, the evacuated employees returned to work on the paint line on the northwest part of the building.

Employees near the southeast paint line were evacuated. About 30 employees stood outside while smoke wafted through their workplace. Firefighters were atop the building, while some Streater workers and managers in the slightly smoky area sought to cool the stack. One worker was on a lifter spraying water with a hose.

The fire was hard to see because it was on the roof. Some employees watched from the back of the parking lot near railroad tracks so they could see some of the roof fixtures. Others just waited in their cars or close to a loading dock near the fire.

Streater is headquartered in Albert Lea, opening in 1917. In 2000, Streater became a part of the Marmon Retail Services group of companies.