A fire at an auto repair shop Friday morning was intentionally set, Fire Marshal Ray Tingley said.
“It appears that it was an intentionally set fire,” said Tingley, who brought in a crew from the state fire marshal’s office to assist in the investigation.
There were no injuries in the fire at Aces Automotive Repairs and Sales, LLC at the corner of Bridge Street and E. Main.
Tingley said the fire was set at several spots inside the building.
“That’s one of the things that led us to determine that it was an arson fire,” Tingley said.
The fire marshal said it doesn’t seem like an accelerant was used in the fire. He said he could not go into details as to how it started.
No one was in the building when the fire was reported at 6:27 a.m. The first firefighters were on the scene at 6:32 a.m.
“Units arriving found heavy black smoke coming from the building,” said Ansonia Fire Chief Ron Burgess, Sr.
Firefighters forced a garage bay open to get inside. The smoke inside was blinding.
Tingley said the worst damage was to an office area behind the waiting room on the East Main Street side of the one-story building.
“The office area was pretty well gutted,” he said.
There was some fire damage in the basement as well.
It took about 20 minutes to get the fire under control.
Derby’s rapid intervention team was called to the scene as well.
The Ansonia’s fire marshal’s office was at the scene until 2:49 p.m.
“At this point we’ve turned it over to the detectives in the Ansonia Police Department and they’ll take it from there,” Tingley said.
The auto shop’s owner, Orlando Rodriguez, said there was about $40,000 to $50,000 worth of equipment in the garage.
Tingley said this is Ansonia’s second reported arson in two weeks.
Last week the new owners of a vacant home on Franklin Street discovered the remnants of a fire inside the house.
“We couldn’t determine when it was set, but it was an intentionally set fire,” Tingley said.
There is no connection between the two arson fires, the fire marshal said. He estimated the city averages about two arson fires per year.
