Garage fire starts four-wheeler

March 22, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - When firefighters responded to a garage fire Saturday afternoon, they found the 30-by-30-foot metal structure completely involved - and a four-wheeler inside, its starter ignited by the fire, revved and ready to ride.

"It was running when we got there," Fire Chief Jack Krill said.

Property owner Edward Ribbeck had been working in his garage less than an hour before the structure caught fire. A neighbor called Ribbeck, who called 911 around 3 p.m.

A fire department class training nearby responded immediately to the fire at at 8819 West O'Brien Creek with about a dozen firefighters. Responders numbered 32 over the afternoon.

Firefighters measured the most intense heat at the location of a gas furnace, which sat on the garage floor and vented out the back wall. Fire Chief Jack Krill said the fire probably began there.

"Nothing in his knowledge that he'd done started the fire," Krill said.

Krill estimated the value of the loss of the entirely metal building at $40,000 and of the contents, including four-wheelers and other machinery, at $30,000. There was no damage to surrounding areas.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.