Community Corner

Fire Chief: Garage a 'Complete Loss'

The recreational repair garage, which had been home to the Disturbed Image truck club, was left beyond repair after a fire engulfed the building at 200 Clark St. early Thursday afternoon.


Standing with his girlfriend outside of the Disturbed Image garage on Clark Street Thursday afternoon, Ryan Bailey couldn’t help but just stare ahead, looking at the building that had been home to his truck club for the past five months.

“This was our passion. We’d come here after work, a bunch of good guys, to build custom cars and just do what we loved,” said Bailey, 23. “This is what we loved and it just sucks to see it burnt down.”

A heavy fire completely engulfed the 200 Clark St. garage, causing extensive damage to the building that sits at the back of the T.C. & Sons property. Fire Chief Harold Clark said the building was “without a doubt, a complete loss.”

The fire broke out just after noon and by the time firefighters first arrived on scene, it had spread through the building with flames showing from the roof and a plume of smoke extending so high into the air that it could be seen from several miles away.

Firefighters battled the blaze for over an hour, preventing it from spreading to the nearby business Flat Out Fabrication, or the Clark Bros. Bolt Company building in the background. Clark said the fire was under control as of 1:30 p.m., but that firefighters would remain on scene for several hours and battle flare ups in the old industrial garage.

Cheshire firefighters were called to the scene as back up and assisted with the initial response.

Early concerns led the to evacuate some of the surrounding buildings, Clark said.

“There was a 2,000 gallon drum of diesel fuel and it had just been filled today, so our guys had to work quickly around that,” Clark said. “It doesn’t appear the fuel was affected by the fire.”

No one was injured in the fire. Fire officials said neighbors have now been allowed back into the surrounding buildings. The cause of the fire remains under investigation and Clark said, at this point, there is no known point of origin.

“We can’t say whether it’s suspicious. At this point, we are still putting out the flames and we need to complete an investigation into it,” he said.

The garage was used for recreational work that was being done to custom cars, Bailey said, and several vehicles inside the garage were lost as a result of the blaze. There was a Ford low-rider truck and custom-built Toyota Scion in the shop that were nearly complete, among other vehicles, he said.

Other club members were present at the Thursday fire, but declined to comment. Owners of the property, which belongs to T.C. & Sons, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Disturbed Image is a truck club that met after work daily and the third Saturday of every month, Bailey said. The Southington shop is one of three locations in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The club has been involved in several community events, including in Meriden where members helped host a car show each summer to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of Meriden.

“We had a wood-burning stove inside and have been told there are a couple other areas where this might have started,” said Bailey, a family friend of Asst. Fire Chief T. Russell Wisner. “I can’t speculate any further; at this point, we just don’t know what happened.”

“We’ve lost everything there. It just sucks,” he said.


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