GRAPEVIEW, Wash. — A massive fire broke out at All West Coast Auto Wrecking Wednesday afternoon. Two employees were hurt in the fire; one had minor burns to their hands and is expected to be ok, but one employee had to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center.
“Yesterday was just kind of a series of unfortunate events,” Talesha Tenorino with All West Coast Auto Wrecking said. “You know they are both super young. The gentleman that is in the hospital has a young child. She’s 3 months. He has a wife that’s also very young and she was very worried about it.”
But KIRO 7 has learned that the employee was discharged from the hospital late Thursday afternoon and is expected to make a full recovery.
“You know, for as bad as it could’ve been, we are so grateful that nobody was seriously injured at this point,” Tenorino said.
The auto wrecker in Grapeview still ran as if things were ‘normal’ the next day. The employee who wasn’t taken to the hospital showed up to work as well. The damage left behind from this fire was very noticeable when KIRO 7 crews return to the scene. According to management, the building that burned is where they stored their truck engines and transmissions. They say the amount of damage done is significant and is going to cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s hard because that building is where we kept all of our transmissions for trucks. All of our engines for trucks. You know those are more of the pricier things. That’s where we would process those trucks,” Tenorino said.
But through this trying time, management and the public remain hopeful for a speedy recovery.
“You know keep the business going. It’s been here for 30-plus years. It’s a small family business and we are just going to keep doing what we can do,” Tenorino said.
According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, there was some small sheening in the runoff in a few places on the property, but it looks like most of the oils burned up in the fire and none went offsite or in the waterway. Right now, the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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