OXFORD — A sprinkler and alarm system may have saved a major Oxford business from destruction early Wednesday morning after fire broke out in the plant off Route 26, fire officials said.

About 25 firefighters from Oxford, Norway, Paris, Mechanic Falls and Poland responded to an alarm shortly before 3 a.m. at MGA Cast Stone, the state’s only architectural precast company, Oxford Fire Department Capt. Shawn Cordwell said.

The business, which employs more than 30 people, moved to Oxford in June 2011, settling in the former Oxford Homes manufacturing plant at 7 Oxford Homes Lane. The main building is about 45,000 square feet.

Cordwell said the fire apparently started in an unattended wood stove where excess plywood used in the concrete form-making process is burned to enhance the heating system.

“A wood stove caught the wall on fire. It extended to the ceiling,” Cordwell said. “The sprinkler held (the fire) in check.”

He said had it not been for the sprinkler and alarm system, which had police at the facility within seconds and firefighters soon after, the entire building may have been lost.

Damage was estimated at about $500, Cordwell said.

Chief Financial Officer David Swasey said repairs were quickly made and employees were back to work Wednesday morning. A few new studs, some insulation and Sheetrock repaired the damage, he said.

Cordwell said it is not unusual for an industrial company to use an oversized wood stove to burn excess plywood. Swasey said normally the wood stove burns out quickly after employees leave for the day. It is unclear why it did not in this case, he said.

The company went online with a new “state of the art” computerized concrete mixing plant in February. The unit is worth about $500,000 and was purchased to double its production capability, owner Gerry Hamann said earlier this year.

No equipment was damaged in the fire.

MGA does new construction and restoration work. Local construction projects have included facade work on a Bates College dormitory, the Maine Federal Family Credit Union in Lewiston and the Franklin Community Health Network Building in Farmington.

The company has also done restoration work at the Tower Court building on the campus of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, the Paramount Building in Bangor, the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut and the L Street Bath House in South Boston, where they restored the cast stone balcony.

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