Fire at Summer car shop causes $800K in damages
Dry conditions not a factor
901-333-2014
A fire that ripped through a Summer Avenue car repair business Tuesday night caused more than $800,000 in damage to the building and contents, fire officials said Wednesday.
The fire at Transmission Clinic and Auto Repair was reported at 5:36 p.m. Tuesday at 2525 Summer. The two buildings did not have a sprinkler system and the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, said Memphis Fire Department spokesman Lt. Wayne Cooke.
It took 70 firefighters who used 29 pieces of equipment about two hours to get the fire under control, Cooke said.
No injuries were reported but the heavy smoke caused police to shut down a portion of Summer Avenue as fire crews fought the blaze.
Cooke said two buildings and multiple vehicles had smoke, fire and water damage. Damage is estimated at $360,000 to the structure and $500,000 for contents.
He added that the current drought conditions in the area did not affect crews battling the fire at the transmission business.
“It was not the dry conditions, but the heavy combustibles inside the business that caused problems,” Cooke said. “When we arrived on the scene the fire was well advanced because of the heavy combustibles inside.”
The city of Memphis is not under a burn ban, but unincorporated areas of Shelby County and Lakeland were placed under a burn ban on Oct. 15, said county fire spokesman Brent Perkins. On Tuesday, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant issued a statewide burn ban at the request of the state’s Forestry Commission because of the drought conditions throughout the state.
“The dry conditions caused us to issue the burn ban,” Perkins said. County fire crews responded to nine brush fires on Saturday alone, Perkins said.
“In unincorporated Shelby County no burn permits are being issued, it is too dangerous and we are monitoring the situation every day,” Perkins said.
The Millington Fire Department also has issued a burn ban for that city. The ban prohibits all outdoor burning.