DENMARK TOWNSHIP —
Danny White started his Memorial Day with a $20 job fixing a customer’s starter on a saw, a job he performed in his five-year-old, fully-equipped workshop.
By 3 p.m. Monday, all White had was the $20, a screw drill and the burned out shell of his dream garage.
“It was every man’s dream,” White said. “When the men walked into my garage, they would say ‘This is what I want,’ it was like Home Depot.”
In a matter of minutes, the dream garage went up in flames. White said he heard an explosion shortly before 2 p.m. and looked out to see the building engulfed in flames. His first thoughts were on his $30,000 excavator, which happened to be at a job site rather than in the garage. His next thought was for the dump truck and trailer, which were parked in front of the 32-by-48-foot block, metal and wood building.
White was able to move the dump truck out of danger, and he returned to the building to remove one of the two antique Jeeps that he was restoring. One of them was to be purchased at 2 p.m., about the time the fire was being called into the Pierpont Volunteer Fire Department.
Chief Randy Woodard said the roof had already collapsed on the building by the time the first firefighters arrived. Pierpont, which has a contract with Denmark Township to provide fire protection, was assisted by units from Dorset Volunteer and Jefferson Village fire departments.
Woodard said about 30 firefighters were on the scene for a little under an hour. All firefighters could do is pump water on the fire.
White had no hope for salvaging anything from the building once it cooled.
“It’s all junk. Once that concrete (floor) gets hot, it’s all loss,” White said.
As to the cause, White feels it was a smoldering cord from the saw he had repaired.
White built the garage to accommodate his various business pursuits, which include auto restoration, machine work and excavation services. He said that, in addition to the Jeeps, he had antique lawn mowers, a Bridgeport machining tool, metal lathe and a collection of tools that took him 30 years to assemble.
“Just a lot of stuff I’m going to miss,” he said. “I worked for years to get it. It’s all been by my blood, sweat and tears.”
Woodard and White came up with a loss estimate of $45,000 for the contents and $30,000 for the building.
None of it was insured.
“I think the words to describe this are ‘total loss,’” White said. “All I got to start tomorrow with is $20 and a screw drill.”
Local News
Related Photos
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CARL E. FEATHER / Star Beacon A BURNED-OUT shell is all that remains of the garage owned by Danny White of Denmark Township. Three fire departments responded to the blaze, which was discovered shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. The building and contents were not insured.
Discussion
Workshop lost in Denmark Twp. fire
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