GRAVENHURST, ON- A local fixture of Gravenhurst was destroyed by a fire this weekend.
According to a news release from the Town of Gravenhurst, firefighters from two of the town’s fire stations responded to a fire at Dave’s Auto Repair around 7:15am on Sunday morning.
A passerby had seen smoke billowing from the shop, south of Kilworthy.
Firefighters found a “deep-seated” fire which had already taken hold of the steel clad wood frame of the building, to the point that it would not be saved.
“One customers car was inside and it was destroyed along with the building,” said Fire Chief Larry Brassard, in the news release.
“Aside from that, there were four large storage containers of used oil located in the shop, we were concerned about ground water contamination from these, so the decision was made to let that portion of the building burn up rather than having the oil contaminate the ground in the area any further. This is a sound tactic in areas that are more environmentally sensitive, which is certainly the case here in Muskoka.”
The fire department notified the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the incident as a precaution, even though there were no indications that any of the oil had spilled.
Firefighters also faced several small explosions throughout the morning as containers of various products were heated up by the flames, but there were no injuries. The estimated damages stand at $200,000.
It is not considered suspicious.