Fire destroys Morgen’s Auto Body in Colfax
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FIRE DAMAGE — Morgen’s Auto Body in Colfax sustained heavy damage as the result of a fire the evening of July 10 that Colfax Fire Chief Gary Hill has determined started in the office area. No one was in the building when the fire started. —photo by LeAnn R. Ralph
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — A fire that started sometime after 4:30 p.m. on Monday, July 10, at Morgen’s Auto Body in Colfax destroyed the building’s roof and resulted in heavy smoke and water damage to the rest of the building.
Morgen’s Auto Body is located at 409 Cedar Street south of the railroad tracks.
The fire started in the office area and then moved into the ceiling, said Gary Hill, Colfax fire chief.
When the fire reached the rafters, it spread into the original part of the body shop and then spread through the rafters from there, he said.
The fire did not get as far as moving into the rafters of the current shop area, but the sidewalls, the floor and the paint booth suffered heavy smoke and water damage. The office area was completely destroyed, Hill said.
Morgen’s Auto Body had closed at 4:30 p.m. that day, and no one was in the building. The fire was called in at 5 p.m., he said.
Hill lives on the west side of Colfax and had been out working in his field when he noticed the smoke.
At that point, Hill said he had checked his pager but had not been paged. After a few more rounds in the field, the smoke had become heavier, and when his dad came home, Don Hill said he had seen flames coming out of the front of the building.
It was then that Hill’s pager went off.
The Colfax Messenger left for the Colfax Board of Eduction’s audit and budget review meeting shortly before 5 p.m. that evening.
The street west of the Messenger office seemed especially hazy, perhaps even a bit more hazy than the days this summer when the area has been inundated by smoke from the Canadian wildfires, and when the Messenger reporter reached the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Main Street, heavy, gray smoke could be seen engulfing the Morgen’s Auto Body building.
The Colfax Rescue Squad ambulance pulled up behind the Messenger reporter at the intersection and then drove around to turn onto Main Street.
By the time the Messenger reporter reached the Colfax school district, the sound of the fire engine sirens could be heard headed out toward the fire.
The Village of Colfax reported that 65,000 gallons of water had been used to fight the fire, Hill said.
The Colfax Community Fire Department had 22 firefighters on scene. The Menomonie fire department responded with mutual aid and brought an engine and ladder truck and six firefighters. The Boyceville and Sand Creek fire departments also provided mutual aid, and each department responded with five people as manpower, he said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Hill said he was waiting for an electrical engineer to check the wiring, and he also was waiting for another fire investigator to check over the building.
The Colfax firefighters were on scene from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., and the mutual aid units were all there for several hours, he said.
Office areas tend to have a number of pieces of equipment that could start a fire, such as computers, telephones, phone chargers and photo copiers, Hill noted.
