Welding Shop Destroyed in Fire

SIMI VALLEY —  Randy Miller woke up at 6 a.m. to a nightmare.

“That’s my shop,” he said, as he and his wife, Peggy, watched his welding shop burn on a morning television newscast.

Eleven engines and 65 firefighters responded to the fierce blaze, which was visible to early-morning commuters on the Ronald Reagan Freeway. By the time it was under control, the fire had destroyed a new flatbed truck, a vintage 1967 Mustang and the contents of a welding shop that has been the family’s lifeblood for nearly two decades.

“It’s hard to look at 18 years all melted into that one big pile,” Peggy Miller said.

Fire officials say the fire--so far of undetermined cause--destroyed everything inside Miller’s 8,000-square-foot RFP Welding shop at 580 Easy St. They placed the loss at $500,000, including the vehicles parked inside. Fire officials had no damage estimate for the one-story concrete building in which Miller rented space along with three other businesses.

Quick work by county firefighters and a thick firewall kept the blaze contained to the shop. A neighboring shop, RR Laminates, received minor damage from the smoke and flames.

The fire broke out at about 5 a.m. and was contained by 6:20 a.m. No one was inside the building at the time and none of the firefighters was injured.

Flames leaped 40 feet high and through the building’s roof, casting a glow through the predawn darkness that could be seen from the Ronald Reagan Freeway, Los Angeles Avenue and Madera Road near Wood Ranch. A thick plume of black smoke smothered the area.

The first two firefighters to reach the scene tried to fight the fire from the inside, fire officials said.

But they were stymied by intensely hot flames, a collapsing ceiling, unstable walls and exploding welding-gas cylinders.

Fire crews used a 95-foot ladder on the south side and another on the north side to douse the interior with water through a gaping hole in the roof.

More than five hours after the blaze erupted, fire crews were still mopping up hot spots and contractors were shoring up the building to allow investigators to safely sift through the rubble for a cause.

“It’s going to be awhile,” said Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman Sandi Wells. “They want to make sure it will be really safe.”

With the building stabilized just before noon, fire investigators sent arson dogs into the building to sniff out traces of chemicals used to set fires.