With his clothing in flames, a Stettler-area automotive business operator escaped without injuries after he fled a fire that destroyed his shop just south of Stettler last Wednesday night.
“My coveralls were on fire and my hair was singed and I rolled in the snow and phoned 911,” said Darcy Wright, the owner of Darcy’s Auto Repairs, located on Township Road 38-4.
The shop went up in flames shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“He was working in his shop when he spilled some fuel that started his shop on fire,” said Fire Chief Mark Dennis, whose crews from Stettler Regional Fire Department responded to the call.
Wright, who has owned the business the past 16 years, said the fuel had seeped under a wall and was ignited by a portable heater.
“I was working on a fuel pump on a truck when I spilled a couple of gallons of gas,” said Wright, who cleaned up the spill with a squeegee before he resumed his project.
Two pickup truck, each about 12 years old, a 2004 quad, a 1999 quad and “countless tools” were also lost in the fire, which ruined the 40-by-60-foot building built in 199, he said.
“A lot of the tools dated back to 1945,” said Wright, who added that those included his own, his son’s and his father’s.
“I inherited all my dad’s tools.”
“For my son and myself, this was our life.”
Aside from cleaning up the rubble this week, he’s uncertain about the future the business.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” W r i g h t said Monday.
RV destroyed near White Sands
A recreational vehicle was totalled by fire near White Sands by Buffalo Lake on Dec. 19 at about 6:30 a.m.
“The owner of the vehicle managed to escape harm, but the RV was a total loss,” said Fire Chief Dennis.
The suspected cause of the fire wasn’t released.