A welding accident is being blamed for a Wednesday fire that leveled a Monmouth business.
Nobody was hurt in the fire, but the service garage at Phil’s Garage & Salvage at 360 South Monmouth Road was destroyed in the fast-moving blaze, Monmouth Fire Chief Dan Roy said. He estimated the fire, which also destroyed the building’s contents, including a couple of cars and tools, caused $200,000 worth of damage. Roy said neither the building nor the contents was insured.
The business, owned by Phil Pratt, is less than a half mile from the former AD Electric warehouse, which in May was destroyed in a spectacular fire that was marked by numerous explosions. That fire, like Wednesday’s fire at Phil’s, was sparked by welding.
The fire was reported around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday after Pratt, who lives in a home on the property, saw smoke coming from his garage just a few minutes after he quit work for the evening. Roy said Pratt investigated and found fire engulfing a vehicle on a lift. The flames were already spreading to the ceiling.
“When the Fire Department arrived on scene, the structure was fully involved,” Roy said. “Fire was blowing out the north end of the building.”
Nearly 30 Monmouth firefighters, joined by more than two dozen others from Greene, Leeds, Litchfield and Wales, knocked the fire down in less than 45 minutes, Roy said. Pratt’s house, about 100 feet away, was not threatened.
“Our main concern was the vehicles that surround the garage,” Roy said. “There was a vehicle on a lift, on the exterior, that had some damage, but most of the fire was contained to the blueprint of the building.”
Crews called for an excavator to knock down the roof, which was unstable, so firefighters could douse the hot spots. Roy said the last firefighters remained until nearly 11 p.m.
Roy said Pratt had been welding a vehicle in the garage just before the fire broke out. Roy concluded that hot slag or sparks from the welding ignited something combustible in the vehicle, which burst into flames after Pratt left for the day.
“He just didn’t know it because it was up high and hidden from view,” Roy said.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
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