Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010119
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
FIRE GUTS BLACKSBURG CAR-REPAIR SHOP
John Kytchen, 63, watched Friday as firefighters put out a blaze that raged through his-car repair business, John's Garage, on Jennelle Road.His son and partner, Garie Kytchen, 38, of Merrimac Road was taken to Radford Community Hospital with first and second degree burns on his face, fire officials said. He was released Friday afternoon.
They had been working on separate cars when the fire started, John Kytchen said, standing at the living room window of his house next door.
Kytchen said he was working under a car in one of the bays when he saw flames coming from two buckets of cleaning solvent. He tried to put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher but it didn't work, he said.
Blacksburg Fire Chief Bobby Carner said he wasn't sure what started the fire but the Kytchens were changing a gas tank and gasoline and vapors had leaked out.
An incident report said a spark from a wood stove could have started the fire.
Carner estimated about $25,000 damage was done. Both bays of the garage were gutted by the fire and two cars, belonging to customers, were destroyed.
Puffing on a cigarette, John Kytchen leaned with both elbows on a shelf and stared through the curtains. "I guess I'll start all over," he said of his 28-year-old business.
Kytchen and his wife, Helen, who called 911 at 10:49 a.m., complained that the firefighters took 30 to 45 minutes to get to the fire.
"We hear that all the time," Carner said, especially in the daytime. It took 17 firefighters about 6 to 8 minutes, he said. They arrived at 10:56, according to the incident report. Daytime is always slower for a volunteer fire department because firefighters have to get off work, Carner said.