Fire rips through Shepherdsville business early Wednesday; no injuries reported

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An auto repair shop in Shepherdsville was gutted by fire early Wednesday.

It started around 8 a.m. at Glen's Auto Clinic on Highway 44, according to Shepherdsville Assistant Fire Chief Todd Bivens.

"When we arrived on scene, we had heavy fire and smoke showing from the rear and roof of the structure," Bivens said.

No one was inside the building at the time, and no injuries have been reported. Bivens said about 75% of the structure, which consists of four connected buildings, was destroyed.

"It went through three of those structures," Bivens said. "It did not make it into the office area."

Four vehicles and a boat were also destroyed in the fire.

Bivens said numerous combustible items inside the shop posed a challenge for firefighters.

The brother of the owner of the auto shop was in an RV parked next to the shop with one other person and seven dogs, but they were not injured. Bivens said the people inside were asleep but were awakened by a passerby who knocked on the RV's door to alert them to the fire.

Firefighters from two other districts — Zoneton and Nichols — also responded to the scene. Firefighters from the Southeast Bullitt Fire Department remained on standby to respond to any other fires while the other crews put out the fire at the auto repair shop.

The fire has been contained, but Bivens said crews will continue working and checking hot spots throughout the day.

"We will be out here probably for another couple of hours, because there's a lot of debris inside the building that we're going to have to sift through and find the hidden hot spots and the fire underneath," he said. "There's a lot of metal. It had a metal roofing inside that fell down, and we're going to have to pull a lot of that out in order to get the fire underneath of it and extinguish all of the hot spots and anything that's still burning."

Bivens said the cause of the fire is undetermined, but arson is not suspected. The Shepherdsville Fire Marshal is leading the investigation.