'Hub Cap Alley' loses last surviving salvage yard in OKC fire
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Oklahoma City fire crews battled a large fire just south of downtown Monday morning at an auto sales building.
You may have seen the big plume of smoke bellowing out of the building off South Robinson Avenue as multiple fire crews worked to knock it down.
The owner of the building said that fire brought on a huge loss for her family.
"It's me and my two brothers, and I've been here since I was 12 years old. My son, he was here when he was four days old,” said Kimberly Ream, the owner of A&A Auto Sales, auto parts and salvage. "That's pretty much all we've known."
Ream said it wasn’t easy Monday morning watching the business that’s been in her family for four decades fall apart.
"It's something I've grown up in,” she said. “I used to roller skate in there to get parts, and I just grown up with it. That's pretty much the only thing I've known."
They were just getting ready for an auction in a couple of weeks. The building was the last surviving salvage yard in the area known as 'Hub Cap Alley'.
"We were going to auction off all the inventory, but there's no chance of that now,” Ream said.
The Oklahoma City Fire Department got the call around 9:30 a.m. Monday.
They arrived on scene to heavy smoke coming out of the building.
From there, fighting the fire wasn’t easy.
"We had to fight the fire from the exterior initially,” said Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson with the Oklahoma City Fire Department. “Already had a partial roof collapse. So, a dangerous situation for our crews for sure.”
Not long after that, Ream got the call.
"So I raced over here and I hit I-40 and the black smoke was just so thick,” she said. “So I knew it couldn't be good."
She could only helplessly stand and watch, seeing everything she and her family built come down.
"A 1956 Packard that was drivable,” Ream said. “There's an old Plymouth and some other old parts.”
Fire officials said no one was hurt. The total damage is estimated to be $600,000.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.