Man suffers minor burns when Ferndale car shop burns inside commercial building
One man suffered minor burns to his hands and legs and one unit was heavily damaged in a commercial structure fire Friday afternoon at the North Ferndale Business Park along Grandview Road.
Whatcom County Fire District 7 firefighters were called to the fire in the 2000 block of Grandview Road at 1:08 p.m. Friday, May 15, and found flames and smoke reaching high out of the metal building, assistant chief Dean Crosswhite told The Bellingham Herald.
The building has eight commercial units in it, Crosswhite said, and what appeared to be a mechanic’s car shop caught fire. A lift and a car were in the unit at the time.
The handful of people in the building at the time of the fire had already left, Crosswhite said, and the fire crew was able to extinguish the flames quickly.
A nearby hydrant and construction that was up to fire code helped prevent the fire from spreading to other units, Crosswhite said, though units adjacent to the one that burned did suffer some smoke damage.
Though fuel inside the unit did burn, Crosswhite said fire investigators are still working to determine what ignited the fire.
A man who was working in the unit at the time attempted to put the fire out before firefighters arrived, Crosswhite said, and that’s when he suffered the burns, for which he reportedly refused treatment.
The date of the fire was corrected May 16, 2020.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
