Fire Destroys Ventura Car Repair Shop

A foreign car with a malfunctioning fuel line caused an explosion that resulted in a three-alarm fire at a Ventura repair shop Wednesday afternoon that severely damaged the building.

Although five people were in the B & C Foreign Car Repair building when the fire broke out just after 5 p.m., no one was seriously injured.

Laszlo Bihari, 49, who owns the auto shop, suffered burns to his forearm. He was taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, where he was treated and released.

Six engines, one truck company and two rescue ambulances with more than two dozen firefighters helped contain the blaze within 45 minutes. By 7 p.m., the flames were out and the building, at 241 San Clemente, was a burned-out shell with several charred vehicles inside.

According to the owner’s 19-year-old son, Bryan Bihari, a customer brought in his car just minutes before the shop closed. When his father put the car on a hoist to take a look, the fuel line exploded, he said.

“We heard this big old pop. . . . Things happened so quickly,” a dazed Bryan Bihari said an hour later, shivering on the street without his jacket. “I looked and my dad’s whole arm was on fire.”

Bryan, whose jacket caught fire in the explosion, rushed to grab a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at his father. Rescue workers bandaged Laszlo’s arm and transported him to the hospital.

Residents of an apartment building behind the auto shop were evacuated. The flames spread onto the roof of Eric’s Tackle Shop next door on Thompson Boulevard, but firefighters were able to subdue them before they did any damage to the main part of the building.

Firefighters faced difficulties battling the blaze because flammable materials in the auto shop kept exploding. Several firefighters received minor shocks from old electric wiring in both buildings. But they were able to put the fire out before Southern California Edison crews arrived to shut off power to the buildings.

No damage estimates were available Wednesday night.