RCFD Crews Quickly Stop Sunday Morning Fire

Rapid City, SD – Just before 8:30 am Sunday morning, Rapid City Firefighters from Stations 1, 4 and 7 were dispatched by Pennington County 9-1-1 to a report of a structure fire in the area of East Chicago St. and North Cherry Avenue. When the Station 1 crews arrived on scene they found black smoke coming from multiple garage doors, walk-in doors and roof vents on the building. The building, located at 202 North Cherry Avenue, is occupied by two separate auto maintenance businesses, Uncle Milt’s Alignment Service and Advanced Auto Repair.

Crews believed the fire to be inside of Uncle Milt’s Alignment inside of the garage. Once inside, they encountered heavy smoke and high heat conditions. Because of the size of the building and nature of businesses involved, a second alarm was struck which summoned Truck 3 from Station 3 and additional command staff.

Crews cut a large hole in an overhead garage door to help ventilate the structure and to better gain access. Once inside, firefighters were able to quickly knock down the fire. The fire appears to have been isolated to a vehicle inside the shop and materials nearby. Once the forward progress of the fire was stopped, crews began the meticulous overhaul process to locate and extinguish hot spots and worked to ventilate both businesses.

Fire investigators were on scene and are working with businesses ownership to determine the cause. There were no injuries reported to firefighters or civilians. Firefighters remained on scene until  just after 10:00 am.

Updates to this release are not anticipated at this time. For questions or comment related to this release, please contact Lt. Jim Bussell with the Rapid City Fire Department at 605-394-4180

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RCFD Resources Responding: Battalion 1, Truck 1, Squad 1, Medic 1, Engine 7, Engine 4, Truck 3, RCFD Fire Operations Division Chief, B-Shift Battalion Chief, RCFD Fire and Life Safety Division, RCFD PIO

Other Agencies Responding: Pennington County 9-1-1, Rapid City Police Department, Pennington County Fire Administrator, Montana Dakota Utilities, Black Hills Energy

Above: Rapid City Firefighters fork to gain access inside of Uncle Milt's Alignment Shop on North Cherry Avenue after a fire broke out there on Sunday morning.