Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
It was announced on June 29, the fire at ThorSport Racing on June 13 was accidental. It appeared to have started in some mulch underneath stairs of a patio. The fire caused $10 million dollars’ worth of damages, as stated in the Ohio State Fire Marshals report that was released on Wednesday.
ThorSport has four trucks in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and thanks to the courageous fireman who managed to save 15 to 18 trucks from the fire. However, the team will have to rebuild almost 40 percent of their 100,000-square-foot shop located in Sandusky, Ohio.
Jeff Koehn the assistant state fire marshal who filled out the report, noted investigators could not rule out smoking materials as the reason the fire started. However, the interviews conducted by the investigators offered no evidence anyone was smoking within the area of the shop on the day the fire broke out. Also the water they used to extinguish the fire washed away most of the mulch from the building as well.
According to the report none of fire alarms nor the automatic sprinkler system installed inside the shop was activated because the fire was spreading from the exterior into the roofline and walls which was above and also beyond the reach of the sensors and sprinkler leads. The fire was discovered by the only shop employee who was working. They went to get their phone charger and they could see and smell smoke which appeared to be coming from the basement. The employee then went to the basement where they saw fire through the holes in the block basement wall. The employee then found a security guard and they reported the fire at 12:51 am.
After the fire, the team has temporarily moved to various buildings in the Sandusky area while the new shop is being built. Notably, the team’s suspension and fabrication shops were destroyed in the fire.
