The following is a report from KPHO Arizona News.
Crews extinguished a massive fire that broke out at an RV repair shop in east Mesa on Sunday afternoon.
The fire was first reported around 3:30 p.m. at Gene’s RV & AC Repair near Main Street and Crismon Road, just east of Loop 202.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said the RV repair shop was fully engulfed when units arrived. Several fire departments were on the scene, and the Mesa Police Department helped with traffic control in the area.
“Something this big with so many structures or different vehicles involved, that’s what calls out such a big response,” said Shawn Gilleland, public information officer with the Rural Metro Fire Department.
Gilleland says the first arriving crew saw a downed powerline and several RVs on fire.
“There’s a lot of RVs back in there stacked, so right now, it looks like a war zone. It’s just a pile of metal back there,” said Gilleland.
All nearby businesses were evacuated as RVs can have flammable items like propane tanks.
Officials believe the fire started at the back of the business among numerous RVs before spreading to an adjoining business, burning other RVs, cars and boats. It took roughly two hours for crews to get the blaze under control.
“We’re just happy nobody was hurt and just property damage. You know, it is what it is. You know, things just happen,” said Gene Thomas, owner of the RV repair shop.
“It’s going to take a while for them to work through a lot of that rubble and debris to find out how many things were damaged,” said Gilleland.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Read the full report from KPHO here.
