Building demolished after fire destroys Celina dealership

CELINA — A building was demolished Wednesday morning after a fire destroyed a Celina auto dealership.

>>PHOTOS: Firefighters on scene of fire at auto dealership in Celina

Celina firefighters were dispatched at 1:10 a.m. to Kerns Chevrolet at the 200 block of South Walnut Street on initial reports of a structure fire.

Joel Lange, Celina Fire Chief, told News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz that a police officer saw fire and smoke coming from two windows.

“They weren’t able to locate an actual fire, a lot of heat, and smoke,” he said. “The fire was already upstairs because it looked like the stairs burned previously.”

Since the fire was burning so strong when they got on the scene, firefighters had to battle it from the outside.

“This building can be replaced, nobody else can, human life is more valuable than a building,” he said. “The building is a total loss.”

After hours of trying to get the fire out, the chief said it was burning so deeply inside of the building that they had to take a different approach. They called in an excavator to break up the building so they could get to the root of the fire.

With the building broken up, firefighters were able to put the remaining flames out.

No one was in the building at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

Lange says the State Fire Marshall was requested to the scene to investigate the cause of the fire.

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