Published: June 21, 2008 11:37 pm         

Owner wants to rebuild

Cause of Father’s Day blaze ruled to be electrical

WINAMAC — Fred Allen can start thinking about rebuilding.

The owner of Fred Allen Auto Center in Winamac received word from the state fire marshal Friday that the investigation into the June 15 fire that gutted his car dealership is complete. The cause of the early-morning blaze on Father’s Day, the fire marshal told Allen, was electrical.

Allen’s dealership and Winamac Body and Frame Shop, which leased a portion of the north end of Allen’s building, were a total loss. Allen stated the other shop will lease property somewhere else in order to reopen.

Allen explained that in 1988 — two years before he and his wife, Jane, bought the dealership at 820 S. Monticello St. — the roof of the building was converted from a flat top to a peaked one. Allen said that blocks were used to build up the sides on the roof, then trusses were laid on top of those blocks, creating a space in between the old roof and the new one.

Unknown to Allen, there were old transformers left in that attic space that had been used to power neon signs the dealership no longer uses. It was these transformers that the fire marshal deemed to have been the cause of the blaze.

Though Allen said nothing could be salvaged after the blaze, he said the fire marshal’s determination will allow him to begin working with his insurance company to rebuild the dealership.

According to Allen, the business lost about $100,000 worth of inventory, including four vehicles, two motorcycles and “a ridiculous amount of parts.”

On the positive side, though, he said his nephew Jacob Grund and his brother Larry Allen saved more than $400,000 worth of assets.

The owners were in Florida visiting one of their sons who is in the Air Force when the fire broke out. Allen said he received a call at about midnight CST telling him there was some smoke coming through the roof.

Because Grund and Larry Allen were in Winamac, they went immediately to the dealership after Fred contacted them. Fred said the two moved a Class A motorhome, a trailer that contained the family’s dragster and four or five cars away from the fire.

Grund affirmed the trailer would have been hit by pieces of the roof as the building burned had it not been moved toward the south end of the lot.

Fred Allen praised the efforts of the Winamac Volunteer Fire Department as well as firefighters from several surrounding districts who worked to extinguish the blaze.

“Because the fire was between the two roofs, they couldn’t get to it,” Allen said.

Allen said waiting for the fire marshal’s ruling has been the hardest part of the ordeal for him and his family. Allen said he had to wait for a cause to be determined, but he can apply for permission from his insurance company to demolish the old building.

Allen anticipated the demolition process could take about a month then estimated it could take another two months after that to rebuild. However, Allen said he expects to be able to reopen at the south end of the lot next week,

“We’ll be in business,” he said. “We’ll be open.”