An early-morning fire at the Ellis County landfill Friday has left the small service shop where the flames broke out a total loss, according to Public Works Director Bill Ring.
The insurance company called Ring on Tuesday morning and told him the 30-by-50 structure has been declared totaled.
“I have no paperwork yet, I just got the phone call,” Ring said. “It’s more damage than we expected.”
While the building is not unsafe, he said, the exterior siding was damaged, as were red iron steel I-beams inside holding up the roof.
“There’s so much heat damage to the building, and then it twisted,” Ring said. “Some of the red iron in the building is twisted by the heat.”
No one was injured in the fire, which started around 4 a.m., he said. The shop building has been at the landfill northwest of town at 1515 W. 55th St. ever since Ring can remember, and is used as a place for parking equipment and for doing vehicle maintenance and service.