Lightning likely caused Nacogdoches auto repair shop fire

NACOGDOCHES — Forces of nature kept area firefighters busy, left five people without jobs and burned a local auto repair shop to the ground early Thursday morning, as heavy rains and lightning filled the sky over Nacogdoches.

Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (enlarge photo) A fire destroyed Venegas Auto Body shop on Douglass road early Thursday morning.

Nacogdoches Fire Department Chief Keith Kiplinger said it took all five engines and four hours to contain a fire that left Venegas Auto Sales, 1124 Douglass Road, a pile of ashes and scorched metal.

"Because an auto body shop has a lot of chemicals, paint and other things, it made extinguishing the fire take longer than normal," Kiplinger said. "The cause (of the fire) is still under investigation, but we do know a large lightning strike occurred in that area about 10 minutes before the call came in."

The fire was reported around 2:20 a.m., and NFD quickly called in off-duty firefighters and members of Appleby and Woden volunteer fire departments to cover the stations in case other fires occurred in the city.

"When the firefighters arrived on the scene, the building was already fully involved," Kiplinger said. "Our objective then was to protect the exposures — a house next door and Skatarama roller rink."

The neighboring structures were left undamaged by the enormous blaze.

Firefighters were somewhat limited on what they could do because of the storm. The lightning storm didn't allow them to use a ladder truck, and the rain actually hindered the firefighters' efforts.

"The rain doesn't really help us in a situation like this," Kiplinger said. "It slows down our ability to work, and we can't see well."

Thursday morning, after the sun rose, the rubble still smoldered while many of the employees and friends sifted through the ashes looking for car keys and tools. Eight to 10 vehicles are suspected to be a total loss along with the building itself.

Eliseo Venegas, the owner of the auto shop, said he didn't have insurance on his building, but he intends to re-build.

"I had five people working at the shop," Venegas said. "I don't know what they plan on doing — most of them had $3,000 worth of tools that burned, so they don't have their tools to take to another job."

Venegas said he was trying to get in touch with the owners of the vehicles that were damaged, but because the phone numbers were in his office, it has been difficult.

"I want to re-build, but I'm going to wait until after the investigation and wait until I know how much it's going to cost," Venegas said. He added that he has owned the business for only about a year.

Kiplinger said the investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing, but it will be hard to determine if lightning was "100 percent the cause."

"At this point, what we are doing is eliminating the other possibilities," Kiplinger said. "First, we will have to eliminate arson as the cause, but there is nothing at all to lead us to believe that's the cause."