MAGNETAWAN – It took six years to build and in a flash the business Les Grasley built was gone.

It was shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 20 when Grasley, doing what he thought to be a routine job, encountered disaster. He was changing a gas tank on a customer’s car in the rear bay at his garage on Albert Street in Magnetawan when suddenly a flash appeared and a fire started, spreading fast.

“There must have been some gas vapors sitting up on top of the tank,” said Grasley who was using a wire brush to clean up a bolt before trying to get the nut. “I don’t know what happened, but obviously there was a spark.”

Grasley says he wasn’t long getting out from underneath the car. He then started to battle the blaze with the fire extinguishers he had on hand.

“I ran out of fire extinguishers trying to stop it and I shut the fire doors and I only managed to get one truck out and that was all before it was too far gone,” said Grasley.

The garage is only about a block from the fire department, but by the time the response came it was too late to save anything inside the building.

“I’ll give the fire department credit. I told them to pay attention to the back wall where I’ve got an oil storage tank and they did. They stopped it from going up which would have been an awful mess,” said Grasley.

The early rough estimate of the loss from the fire is about $400,000 considering the tools, machinery and building.

“A conservative estimate is $150,000 in equipment alone,” said Grasley.

Since the fire Grasley has been trying to figure out just what his next steps will be. He is still not certain what his insurance is going to do and whether he has the energy to rebuild.

“I’m 56 years old. Do I want to start over, because we’ve lost absolutely everything,” said Grasley.

Grasley started the garage in Magnetawan in 2002 after spending years working for other service shops.

“It was just going to be a little shop to supplement. It became the shop that just grew and grew.”

After a year-and-a-half in business Grasley looked over the books and found he was averaging 100 new customers a month. He thought there would be a future for Grasley’s Auto Repair. That same year, 2003, he added two more bays to the back of the original steel structure.

By times he was employing four full-time mechanics and a bookkeeper as well as himself. At the time of the fire only two mechanics were on staff.

“We built this business on service and doing our best to help the customer out. Just a week ago Friday I got a call at 5 a.m. from a plow truck driver needing help. I was there right away,” said Grasley.

Now he’s looking for some help from his customers. Grasley says the last month’s paper work went up in the blaze and he would appreciate any and all help he can get to recreate it through receipts. Anyone with a receipt from the business issued after Nov. 20, 2008 is asked to call 387-1435.

As he attempts to recreate the financial records, Grasley says he is waiting patiently for the insurance company to present his options to him.

“The first thing we’ve got to look at is getting (the garage) cleaned up and under control.”