Minocqua business sustains major damage in fire

A Minocqua automotive repair business on Frank Drive was heavily damaged Tuesday as the result of a fire that started with an unattended fire. 

Minocqua fire chief Rich Carani said his department was originally called to the report of an outside fire at Advanced Automotive “involving tires burning.”

“The fire quickly spread to the building and some evergreens that were adjacent to the building, which escalated the fire rather quickly,” he told The Lakeland Times Tuesday afternoon. “When I arrived on the scene, the building was now involved (in flame) and I requested a MABAS box alarm for assistance.”

Minocqua firefighters Jeff Pease and Casey Cox fight flames in evergreen trees next to Advanced Automotive on Tuesday, April 2, in Minocqua.
(Photo by Shannon Yurkus/Lakeland Times)

MABAS is Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, used by fire departments and emergency dispatchers to not only get multiple fire fighting assets to a scene as quickly as possible but also the appropriate equipment as designated by the incident commander. 

In addition to Minocqua, firefighters and equipment from Woodruff, Arbor Vitae, Newbold, St. Germain, Cassian, Crescent, Little Rice, Hazelhurst and Nokomis responded, several of them with tankers that could haul water from one of the water points established at the Johnson Lake public boat landing. 

Carani said a Lakeland Sanitary District hydrant near the Yamaha dealership was also used. 

“Essentially, we made our fire attack and used our resources to extinguish the fire,” he said, noting the rear portion of the building, its maintenance bay area, received little damage as the result of the fire. 

“The area that burned they were using primarily for storage,” Carani said, adding there was also damage to an office area at the front of the building. “I’d say within an hour, we had it under control.“

Regarding efforts by all the firefighters involved, he said he was “really happy” with how the operation was handled by everyone.

As for how the fire started, Carani said cardboard was being burned. 

“So, basically, unattended, an outside fire which spread to the tires and into the building,” he said.

Nick Stevens, who told authorities he started the fire, also told them he left it for approximately five minutes. 

Minocqua police chief Dave Jaeger told the Times one of his officers, driving by the business at the time and noticing the fire and no one around, stopped in to let someone know about it.

Based on that, Carani said he believes the fire was unattended for more than five minutes. 

“Tires don’t burn like paper,” he said. “It’s not something that gets going real fast. It had to be going for a little bit.”

The forestry and environmental divisions of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) were notified of the incident.

“The forestry division came out to look at it to see if they’re going to issue a citation (for an unattended burn),” Carani said. “The environmental division I called because I was concerned about the runoff from the fire. You know, we obviously had the tires burning and then we had waste oil, gasoline, all kinds of hazardous fluids that are in a mechanic’s shop that were burned and run off through the water. So, that had gone down the road and flooded out some areas and there’s a swamp there that we were a little concerned about.”

The DNR, he said, is investigating any type of contamination that may have resulted from Tuesday’s fire.

Carani said in the aftermath of the fire, the area of the property with the tires “has to be cleaned up.”

“From what I understand in talking to the son of the owner (Nick Stevens), there’s no insurance,” he said. “So, there’s a little concern there might be some issues with cleanup. It’s gonna be considered a hazardous waste cleanup.”

Jaeger told the Times Tuesday if Nick Stevens doesn’t receive a citation for an unattended burn from the DNR, he will get one from the Minocqua police department. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].