Local News in Brief : Body Shop Fire Forces Neighbors’ Evacuation
A fire in a Glendale auto body shop Sunday forced the evacuation of 30 residents of a nearby apartment complex and caused $335,000 damage, authorities said.
About 35 firefighters battled the blaze, which broke out about 1:30 p.m. at Studio Auto Body in the 300 block of Western Avenue near Victory Boulevard, said Susan Marchman, a Glendale Fire Department dispatcher. The fire was extinguished within 25 minutes, she said.
Residents of the two-story apartment building behind the body shop were evacuated because of potential exposure to smoke and flames, Marchman said. The complex sustained about $10,000 in structural damage, she said.
The fire caused $150,000 in damage to the 2,000-square-foot auto body shop building and $175,000 to its contents, including 14 vehicles in the shop’s parking lot.
Two Mercedes-Benzes inside the building were saved from damage by the body shop’s dry-chemical fire-extinguishing system. The system is triggered by smoke and functions like a sprinkler system, Marchman said.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
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