Lethal combination in salvage yard fire: engines, transmissions, fuel tanks, propane

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Roz Auto Salvage started the clean-up process Thursday night, April 24th in preparation to re-open on Friday, April 25th just one day after the massive fire.

Rick Rozanske, owner of Roz's, calls the fire devastating. It destroyed much of the inventory at his auto salvage yard near 13th and Ramsey.

"I just can't believe it happened," said Rozanske.

Rozanske says he just entered his office when employees started yelling 'fire!'.

"I could see the flames coming up on the door and I tried to grab an extinguisher. I went to the back of the fire, but it was too intense," said Rozanske.

Within minutes firefighters got to the scene and the roof of the storage building was already collapsed.

"We just started clearing the building and telling everyone to get away," said Rozanske.

Engines, transmissions, along with fuel tanks and propane were inside.

"Those propane tanks in there started blowing up and going in all different directions," said Aaron Lipski, chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department.

Lipski says they hit the fire from the outside with aerial master streams and kept the firefighters back at a safe distance.

"If we get too deep into a building like that and one of those propane tanks lets loose, we will kill firefighters. It could have been a lot worse than it was, " said Lipski.

Rozanske says it's going to be a long night, but he's staying positive as he works to get business back on track.

"The bright side is nobody got hurt. We can always rebuild, we can always start over. It's going to be tough, it's going to be a long road, but we'll get it done," said Lipski.

Investigators are trying to figure out exactly how the fire started, but the shop will re-open Friday, April 25th.