CITY OF NEWBURGH – The second major fire eight days on the west side of Newburgh burned down an automobile service and towing business overnight Thursday.

The fire occurred at Dennis’ Auto Service Center at 842 Broadway, just .2 miles from the three-alarm fire that burned a multi-family and displaced 15 people on Dec. 19.

An employee at the neighboring Valero said the overnight-worker had to evacuate the gas station due to concerns that one of the nearby burning cars might explode.

Ed Petricek, assistant chief for the City of Newburgh Fire Department, said firefighters struggled to navigate around the small commercial lot full of cars in various stages of repair as they battled flames from 11:30 p.m. Thursday until about 2 a.m. Friday.

Petricek said no civilians or firefighters were hurt.

“There were a bunch of cars on fire, along with the building,” Petricek said. “... The building was loaded with all kinds of flammable stuff.”

Acting Fire Chief Terry Ahlers said the construction of the building made it unstable once it caught fire. Firefighters were forced to fight the flames from outside the 3,000-square-foot, single-story shop.

“Because of all the damage, we really did not want to chance getting anyone hurt,” Ahlers said.

Firefighters remained on the scene to extinguish hot spots until about 4 a.m., Petricek said.

As was the case with last week’s fire, city firefighters had to travel from one end of Broadway to the other to reach the scene because the West End firehouse is temporarily shut down for asbestos clean-up.

The repair shop sits near the border for the Town of Newburgh.

“This one was a long ride,” Ahlers said.

He estimated it took about 10 minutes for trucks to reach the repair shop after receiving the emergency call at 11:32 p.m.

Ahlers said the average response time for the fire department is three minutes to anywhere in the city when all the firehouses are in service.

Ahlers said the city police escort Thursday night helped to somewhat lessen the response time. Police blocked all the Broadway intersections so that the heavy trucks would not have to slow down during the uphill ride to the west end of town.

“Every minute a fire doubles in size,” Ahlers said. “Time is important when responding to a fire.”

The auto shop’s building is a total loss, Ahlers said.

The business was formerly a Sunoco gas station run by the same owner, Dennis Derry, according to Orange County property records.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but does not appear to be suspicious, Ahlers said.

Fire departments from Vails Gate, West Point and Stewart Air Guard Base assisted at the scene. The Good Will and Coldenham fire departments were on standby to cover the city, Petricek said.