Fire At North Sacramento Tire Shop Sends Black Smoke Into Sky

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A fire at a North Sacramento tire shop Monday morning sent a plume of black smoke billowing into the air.

It happened a few minutes before noon on the 2800 block of Plover Street.

The owner's girlfriend says she was inside the tire shop by herself when she saw smoke coming from one of the rooms.

"I came outside running I was saying help, help, and I was trying to open up the fire extinguisher but the fire was too much."

The tire shop owner's girlfriend, who did not want to be identified, was distraught at the sight of her boyfriend's business going up in flames.

"I did call 9-1-1 before I even grabbed the fire extinguisher and the line was busy," she said.

She says she stood in front of the tire shop watching helplessly as flames shot out of the building, sending thick plumes of smoke up into the air.

"Tire fires are gonna be high-heat and heavy smoke conditions so very low-visibility when you're getting inside trying to fight the fire. You're up against some very high heat," said Chris Harvey, a spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to knock down the flames within an hour -- a rare situation, firefighters say -- for any fire involving rubber tires.

"Tires will burn for days sometimes and in a case like this, we were able to get big water on the fire pretty quickly."

The owner and his girlfriend are both thankful no one was hurt in the fire, but it's a major loss for the owner who opened the shop last year and just got his license to sell tires privately.

"He put a lot of hard work into his business and now this is happening -- we don't know why, but we just gotta move forward."

Firefighters say they were able to stop the flames from spreading to a warehouse and a second office space behind the tire shop.
There were no injuries during the fire – investigators are now looking into what may have sparked the fire.