Photo by Ryan Gladstone / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent Randall O’Dell searches Tuesday for fireworks in a field near the site of a fireworks explosion by Schneitter Fireworks near Amazonia, Mo. The federal agency was tasked with investigating the accident that sent fireworks across the countryside when a scheduled disposal Monday didn’t go as planned.

NODAWAY, Mo. — What was supposed to be a simple destruction project Monday became a huge explosion and a problem for a local fireworks company.

Employees for Schneitter Fireworks, which imports and sells the explosives, dug a deep trench on land the company owns southeast of Andrew County Road 408 and dumped returned, dated and water-damaged fireworks into it.

Employees notified the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department that they were disposing of the fireworks and arranged with the Savannah Rural Fire Protection District to have a firetruck on the scene. Missouri Route T was closed at a nearby track crossing and in Nodaway.

They thought they’d done everything right, but from that point, things started going wrong.

“I thought it was an earthquake,” said Nancy LaFollette, a homeowner who lives on a hill about 900 feet from the explosive trench. “Then I looked outside and saw fireballs flying through the air.”

Mrs. LaFollette had to grab a rake and other implements to fight a fire in her garden.

“We started getting complaints that afternoon, and homeowners continued calling for several hours,” said Gary Howard, the Andrew County sheriff.

A bunch of 911 calls were made Monday along with about seven formal complaints to the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department.

At about 3:20 p.m. Monday, Mrs. LaFollette said, she heard a small explosion and thought it was a blast from the rock quarry up the road.

Photo by Ryan Gladstone / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Mr. O’Dell shows off one of the professional fireworks that littered the area around a problematic fireworks disposal explosion near Amazonia, Mo.

Eight firetrucks and 22 firefighters had to be dispatched to fight grass and brush fires for about two and a half hours, said Capt. Tommy George, a member of the fire protection district.

“Thank goodness we had leaf blowers because it saved a lot of time,” Mr. George said. “If we’d still been using beaters, we might have had to work through the night.”

Mr. Howard notified the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the State Fire Marshal’s office on Monday evening,

Michael Schmitz, a spokesman for the federal agency, said there wasn’t a crime. Officials were there to make sure the area was safe for local citizens. The bureau regulates the storage of explosives, not the disposal, Mr. Schmitz said.

Tuesday, special agents and highly trained explosives specialists combed several acres of fields and woods planting small red flags like push pins in a bulletin board. The fireworks will be collected, and arrangements will be made for an orderly disposal, said David Lin, an agent at the scene and a former Maryville (Mo.) Public Safety officer. All the paperwork also will be checked, Mr. Lin said.

Schneitter Fireworks employees declined to speak to the News-Press at the farm site Tuesday. The company has an office and store at 12801 Andrew County Road 352, near the intersection of U.S. Business Highway 71 and Interstate 29. The family-owned business has been open for about 113 years.

Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.