Shop fire

[65sporty]

Some of you have seen pic's of the shop I work at when I posted some pic's about changing ball joints. This last Tues we had a fuel tank catch fire while changing a fuel pump. Nearly full tank and while draining it into a catch can something ignited the fumes. We tried to put out the fire with 2 extinguishers, ran them dry then turned the hose on it until it got so hot that the water line burst. Out of options we got out made sure everyone was out (4 of us) and waited for the fire dept.I am thankful for no serious injuries. My boss has some blisters on his hands but that is the only injuries.
In our small community we are so blessed by the amount of people wanting to help out with offers of tools, work space, labor for clean up. Most of the building is a total loss, I am still going through my tools to see what is good. He will rebuild the shop,just waiting on the appraisers.
I found us a place to work until the rebuild is done and a friend who retired loaned me his tools and toolboxes. I just wanted to put out a word of caution this is a job I have done hundreds of times without any problems you never know when all the circumstances will line up perfect and a accident will happen. Please be extremely careful when dealing with fuel. Have a well ventilated area, consider all possible ignition sources, alot of things can cause a spark. Just please be safe

 

[Fratzog]

Happy everyone is safe and sound. One of the reasons I always disconnect the battery before doing any work on the car.

 

[Ironwolf]

It truly is amazing how a normal day / task can turn into a total nightmare. It's great to hear that everyone got away without getting severely injured or worse killed. It's good to hear that you did have a few fire extinguishers at your side however helpful they were or were not. I think many people work on their cars, trucks, equipment and alike without the extra protection of a fire extinguisher or three not ever expecting that something may go wrong. (as we all figure AHHH I did this many times before ) I know that I am guilty of this way too many times thankfully without incident. But we all must know and understand that it only takes a few minutes to be extra safe and or have a safety plan to go to prior to the beginning of any projects involving flammable items, drills, grinders, cutting torches, or jacking up a car. 65sporty this is not a flame post in anyway towards you but just a general reminder to "ALL OF US" to be safe when working on our projects and always be prepared to expect the unexpected.

 

[mcmlvii]

Wow, sorry to hear, and thanks for posting. I think this is a good time to put a fire extinguisher on my shopping list... I've got them in various vehicles and in the house but not one hanging on the wall in the garage within easy reach.

 

[thrashingcows]

Glad yo all made it out safely...sorry to hear that the shop is a write off. We had a shop fire on the farm many years ago. An exploding hand help propane torch woke we up in the middle of the night. Saw the glow in the shop and it was off to the races. We had 3 propane tanks in there at the time, two 20lb and one 100lb.....I tried to crawl in and pull them out, but the heat and smoke was too much. When they vented the fire went into overdrive.

Fire investigators figured it was oily rags we had stored in a metal pail that eventually got so hot that they ignited....we were in the middle of a long hot summer spell at the time.

I try my best to be safe...I have a big fire extinguisher in the garage, and in 2 locations in the house. Also a small portable one in each of my vehicles.

 

[saforwardlook]

Also glad you are all OK and hope you guys are back in business as soon as possible in a new shop. Thank you for the important reminder, as you say, we can never be too careful when handling gasoline in a shop environment. A scary reminder that I will take to heart.

All the best.

Steve

 

[detmatt]

Very sorry to hear about the shop but like the others I'm thankful that nobody was hurt.

 

[65sporty]

It truly is amazing how a normal day / task can turn into a total nightmare. It's great to hear that everyone got away without getting severely injured or worse killed. It's good to hear that you did have a few fire extinguishers at your side however helpful they were or were not. I think many people work on their cars, trucks, equipment and alike without the extra protection of a fire extinguisher or three not ever expecting that something may go wrong. (as we all figure AHHH I did this many times before ) I know that I am guilty of this way too many times thankfully without incident. But we all must know and understand that it only takes a few minutes to be extra safe and or have a safety plan to go to prior to the beginning of any projects involving flammable items, drills, grinders, cutting torches, or jacking up a car. 65sporty this is not a flame post in anyway towards you but just a general reminder to "ALL OF US" to be safe when working on our projects and always be prepared to expect the unexpected.

I agree with ironwolf and posted so everyone will take that extra second and think about safety before they begin their repairs

 

[53ryder]

Thankful to hear no one seriously hurt. Bummer about the loss, and at the same time real heart lifting to hear of your community rallying with support.

Glenn

 

[Mr C]

Here's hoping the business is back on it's feet soon! The most important thing is that you're all safe.

 

[1978 NYB]

It's amazing how something can turn in to a disaster in one second.

I'm glad no one what injured!

 

[bulldogchesty]

Very sorry to hear that. Glad everyone is safe. Now you can build it even better, with WIP cans, work in progress cans. We have to put all rags in these containers. Good luck.

 

[65sporty]

We started back to work Mon in a friends shop. The boss is looking at all his options now, either rebuild or find another building. This building has alot of history attached to it, his grandfather built it in 1947 and it started as a Hudson dealership then AMC and finally went to just auto repair around 1970. They have to crunch the numbers to see what makes sense. Our first new tool is a fuel caddy, it sucks the fuel out of a tank prior to service and it pumps it back in after. We should have had one before but you know what they say about hindsight...

 

[tallhair]

Very sorry to hear about the accident but like everyone else I'm glad no one was hurt.

Fires are a ***** and she's an evil *****.

 

[65sporty]

The shop was rebuilt on the original foundation but instead of block it is now 2-8 walls, 14' doors, 16' ceiling, walls are spray foam then wet blow insulated. White steel on the walls and ceiling, led lights. Nice and bright. The waiting room is tongue and groove pine. We changed the lay out a little bit to better suit us now. It turned out really great. Here's some pic's for you guy's

You never think you will need your insurance but you need to ck your coverage on shop contents, my boss lost his butt on contents only had 100,000 in coverage and quit counting items at 300,000. He did ok on the building after fighting with the insurance co and hiring a company to go after them.

 

[The Horvaths]

Nice setup!

 

[65Fury440]

Glad there was a semi happy ending. Looks like a nice place to work.

 

[cantflip]

Looks really good, I'm glad the boss was able to resume business. The thing that hangs in my mind is how did you do? Business owners are not necessarily rich and it is a real challenge for many to recover from such a tragedy. Techs almost never are cover by insurance for tools or compensated for lost time.

Did your tools survive? Were you hurt financially and how bad? You need not answer anything you're uncomfortable with, just expressing the first thoughts I had. Any tech who has been in a business that had problems seems to get hurt somehow, and it's very difficult to impossible to properly insure your tools... It usually involves unrealistic premiums and/or the shop owner's involvement.

With the twins purchase, I found Haggarty offers coverage for my equipment and tools at home... I am still working out details, but this gives me motivation to get it done. The garage content is worth more then the mortgage at new replacement value. My homeowners only let me add something like $10k additional coverage that includes the lawnmower and any other homeowner tools.

In the dealership, to cover my tools was something like 10% of agreed value in tools... not a good reality. I know of a dealership that the shop was wiped out over a weekend... 5+ years later many of the techs still hadn't fully recovered from their losses. The owner helped, but pro level tools aren't cheap... and the shop's equipment was all gone too.

 

[53ryder]

Rising up out of the ashes....
Very cool! Stay safe!

Glenn

 

[detmatt]

Nice to see, thanks for the update.