By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
A gas station already struggling with reduced business will have to close its doors for at least a month following a fire that destroyed most of the station’s interior.
The Stop &Go at 1000 Park Drive caught fire sometime before 12:45 a.m. Tuesday. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but the Washington Police Department has ruled out arson, according to Lt. William Chrismon.
The gas station had been dealing with a 20 percent to 30 percent dip in business since preliminary work on the new Runyon Creek bridge began late last year, said property owner Grady “Buddy” Harris. With the bridge closed, the gas station had seen reduced traffic coming from Washington Park.
“But business was still good. Customers were still coming around,” said Stop &Go owner Gus Salem, who rents the property from Harris.
Salem said he hopes to have the gas station reopened in a month, depending on how fast he can collect insurance payment.
He said that items lost in the fire include cash registers, merchandise and inventory.
The majority of damage suffered by the building was the result of excessive heat and smoke, said Division Chief Mark Yates with the Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS-Inspections Department.
The department’s fire report estimated the property and content damage at $30,000 each.
“It’s pretty bad, but nothing we can’t fix,” said Harris. “I’ve put too much money in that station not to fix it. I intend to fix it and reopen it as early as possible.”
For now, Harris said, the station has been boarded up and locked.
The call reporting the fire came from a passer-by at 12:44 a.m., according to Chrismon.
When firefighters with the Washington Fire-Rescue-EMS-Inspections Department and an officer with the Washington Police Department arrived at the scene some three minutes later, they reported flames visible through the front windows of the gas station.
“It had been burning for a while,” Yates said.
The firefighters had the blaze out within 10 minutes of arriving at the scene, but the immense heat from the fire had already caused significant damage to the gas station, Yates said.
“Sometimes, with a building like that, it’ll burn itself out,” he said. “It’s amazing because the fire was really hot.”
Yates said the fire didn’t spread to the roof or floor of the station because of a lack of oxygen.
“It’s a pretty tight building. It (the fire) didn’t have enough oxygen to spread,” he said.
Two years ago, a fire occurred at the same gas station. That fire was investigated as an arson, but Chrismon said there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the two fires.