The building housing M&R Durango Insectary near the Durango-La Plata County Airport was destroyed Wednesday in a fire.

Several people were in the building when the fire ignited shortly after 11 a.m., and everyone was able to leave without injury, said Brad Egger, division chief and fire marshal for the Los Pinos Fire Protection District.

Egger did not know how many people were in the business when the fire started.

Twenty-two firefighters responded around 11:10 a.m. and nine firefighters remained on scene as of 6 p.m. when firefighters were mopping up hot spots in the building and in the adjacent grass fire, Egger said.

Egger expected a firefighter to stay on scene overnight to watch for any flareups.

According to The Durango Herald archives, M&R produces Nolo Bait, a proprietary mixture of a naturally occurring spore, the nosema locustae that controls grasshoppers.

Egger said no chemicals in the two-story building served as an accelerant. Egger estimated the building was about 30-feet by 40-feet in size.

The fire is under investigation and no cause has been determined, Egger said.

The building blaze also ignited a small grass fire of less than an acre, he said.

Besides Los Pinos, the lead fire agency, other responding departments were the Durango Fire Protection District, Upper Pine River Fire Protection District and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Wildland Fire Interface.

The building is almost due east of the airport runway and about a half mile south of Colorado Highway 172.

Three engines, four tankers, three command vehicles and one brush truck responded.

parmijo@durangoherald.com