A large workshop building on Hightower Road outside of Lafayette burned to the ground Friday morning, taking thousands of dollars worth of vehicles and tools with it.
The property, at 226 Hightower Road, is owned by Kenneth (Ken) and Melanie Tirjan. The workshop was a 22-ft by 72-ft building just a few yards away from the place of residence.
The call came in to the Lafayette Fire Department at about 10:25 AM, and the fire was fully involved by the time they arrived. “We weren’t here,” said Ken Tirjan on the scene. “My father-in-law saw it and called.”
“[Tirjan] had done some work in there, and had a fire going in the wood stove… so that could have been what caused it,” said Lafayette Fire Chief Keith Scruggs. “We were able to extinguish it and keep it from getting to his house, and another building next to it. Unfortunately it was a complete loss, and everything inside—there was a lot in there. There was a [Chevrolet] Camaro, a truck, a boat, a four-wheeler, and then a whole bunch of tools.”
It took eighteen Lafayette fire fighters about three hours to completely extinguish the flames, and they used 13,000 to 14,000 gallons of water.
“We don’t know per se what caused it,” said Scruggs. “When one is destroyed that bad it’s kind of hard to tell. It’s just unfortunate for him. Nothing suspicious about it or anything.”
Tirjan said that the building was insured.
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