So, I was on television last night
 

Well, incase you didn't know or haven't read it in the swaybar thread, something very out of the ordinary happened yesterday at work.

It was about 1:30pm CST as I walked outside to put a tire on a man's truck who was waiting patiently for me. Got it tightened up and let it down on the ground so I could torque the lug nuts to spec. Stood up with the cordless impact in my hand when suddenly a very loud BOOM!! Something very out of the ordinary indeed. I wasn't worried by his point but was very curious as to what was happening. One of my co-workers who was also outside at the time poked his head in the door and goes "Oh crap!!" and I hear someone yell "Get the hell outta here!!" Everyone came running out and I was still unawares as to what exactly was going on.

When I asked, the response was "something blew up, the building's on fire!" Everyone had gotten out safely and 911 was being called already. One of my co-workers is also on the volunteer fire department, so he ran to his pickup and sped away to the fire station!

As soon as we saw everyone was out, our thoguhts turned to customer's cars that were parked closely to the building. We immediately hopped in cars and backed them across the street and repeated until everything was in the clear.

As I was getting into one vehicle, I looked up and noticed a gaping hole in the east side of the building with flames shooting out about 20 feet in the air.

Long story short, by 5pm the building was destroyed. Actually, less than a minute after the initial explosion, the entire building was engulfed in smoke. In a tire shop/service center there are a lot of combustibles. Tires, oil, chemicals, filters, etc...

Anyway, HERE is a link to some pictures that I took with my trusty camera-phone.

Also, I was interviewed by a local television crew. The video can be seen HERE.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

Wow that is crazy. What caused the fire? Nice that everyone is okay!

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

Thankfully nobody got hurt. Hopefully that doesn't effect you employment, you have to be a little worried I would imagine.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

It has been speculated that our waste oil heater (what we use to heat the shop) exploded. That sounds right to me. Flames were shooting out where that would be, and so much black smoke so quickly makes us believe that's what it was.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

That does make sense, Wow I am glad no one got hurt. I just found out about your swaybars, I think when you get set up again I would really like one.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

And I'm honestly not worried at all about my employment. I'm the service call guy, which means I go to farms and fix tires on site. Both service trucks were parked outside and unharmed. With planting season coming up, I'll still have plenty to do. Even today I was busy all day with service calls.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

And yes folks, this is the shop where 22mm swaybars are (were) born. Home of BontragerWorks and all of my fabulous creations! hahah

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

And here I thought you were going to say it was a re-run of Cops

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

Nevin,
Glad you weren't inside when it happened. I'm surprised at the amount of oil they had in the shop. Glad no one got hurt.
-Bill

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

That's what I thought too.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

Well, what you see on television is misleading. While we DO have probably about 2000 gallons of bulk oil total in the shop, it was mainly used oil you were seeing there. The oil was on top of water, so it just seemed like it was all oil.

Also, we got the clear to go into the wreckage tonight after work and get as many tools out of our boxes as we could. We had to leave the toolboxes, but we wanted to clean out what we could before it rains or snows again.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

2000 gallons of used oil? That's a lot of oil changes! :lol:
Why were they keeping so much around? Seems to me that it must have been taking up a lot of room (40 fifty gallon drums).
-Bill

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

No, I mean 2000 gallons of oil total. Including new oil. We have a couple large bulk containers for semis as well as cars as well as maybe 400-ish gallons of used oil stored in larger overhead containers as well. So maybe not 2000, but quite alot. The container that holds clean 15w-40 oil holds 500 gallons itself, I know. And the 5w-30 oil container holds 300 gallons.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

Besides what his post says^ remember earlier he said they have a used oil heater for the shop, that would be what the bulk of used oil would be used for.
Heating a decent sized shop in fairly cold temps.

Re: So, I was on television last night
 

I'm glad that you/all employees escaped!
There has been a LOT of people that were 'on television' for bad things that they DID!!
I LIKE it when people are on television for GOOD things, or Witnesses to a non-fatal 'event'.
You and they were 'spared' for a reason. You ALL could have been trapped inside and killed. Think about it....
Glad you are OK!!