Fire destroys Sunnyside auto shop

SUNNYSIDE -- A downtown fire Thursday sent a man to the hospital with minor burns on his arms, and destroyed an auto mechanic's shop.

Sunnyside firefighters were called about 8:45 a.m. to a fire inside one of the garage bays of In and Out, an auto repair business on the corner of Decatur Avenue and Sixth Street.

About 20 firefighters from Sunnyside and Grandview extinguished the fire by 10:30 a.m., said Sunnyside fire Chief Aaron Markham.

The blaze gutted the building and destroyed three cars inside the garage. It also caused damage to 14 cars parked around the building.

The blaze put up a plume of black smoke visible from as far away as Interstate 82 near Grandview.

The cause is still uncertain, but Markham said the fire most likely started when a spark from a power tool ignited fuel from a leaky fuel pump.

By the time firefighters arrived, the building was fully involved and an employee was trying to put it out with a garden hose.

"I told them to get out of there because they weren't going to do any good," Markham said.

The building is most likely a total loss, Markham said. The cinder block wall sagged and showed cracks above the garage doors.

Two people were in the building at the time. Francisco Ramos suffered burns to his arms but declined treatment at the scene, Markham said. He later, on his own, went to Sunnyside Community Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Sunnyside police closed two blocks of Decatur and Sixth for about two hours.

Ramos was not an employee but a friend of shop owner Jorge Luiz Arroyo and was working on his own car, Arroyo said through an interpreter.

Arroyo, the shop owner, was not present at the time of the fire. He has owned the repair business for a little more than a year.

Also in the building was Ruiz Mobile Auto Detailing. Employee Jeoban Hernandez was working on the computer at the time.

The 1927 building sits across the street from Sunnyside's former City Hall, built in 1909. It once was a gas station but had been auto repair businesses for at least 30 years, said Joyce Wyckoff, owner of Neva's Beauty Salon next door.

The fire briefly cut power to her business.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.

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