Nearly seven months after a fire destroyed their business, employees of 109 U-Pull-It junkyard are still pulling together to rebuild on Thomasville Road.
Construction has begun on a warehouse building that will also house office space.
"We're going a little bigger and a little better," said Bob Young, who owns 109 U-Pull-It with his business partner, Ted Ashley.
The fire, which started the afternoon of Jan. 28, caused an estimated $18,000 in property damage to the building and $500,000 to its contents, the Winston-Salem Fire Department reported Jan. 31.
A fire department investigation found that an employee was cutting an exhaust pipe when sparks from the saw ignited gasoline leaking from a vehicle.
Deputy Fire Marshal Norman Mitchell said at the time that the fire was found to be accidental, and there were no injuries.
Young estimated his losses at $1.5 million.
"Anything under roof burnt — all of our engines and transmissions and tail lights and stuff that we had taken off cars and shelved," he said.
He declined to give an exact figure but said the insurance payment he received for damages covered just 20 percent of his losses.
109 U-Pull-It's old wood-frame building, which had a partial brick exterior, is being replaced by concrete and steel. A sprinkler system will run throughout the new building.
"We don't even plan to have wooden pencils in it," Young joked.
The fire transformed the working environment at the junkyard.
"It pulled us all together and gave us a common purpose," Young said. "We were a bunch of individuals — just employees. It turned into one big team effort."
That teamwork was most evident the morning after the fire.
"We pulled a truck over in the corner of the yard and sold parts across the bed of a truck," Young said. "We opened up the scale and started buying metal and started buying cars. The trucks went out and picked up cars, and we sold parts the best we could."
Billy Cross, manager of 109 U-Pull-It, supplied the truck — a flatbed hauler.
"We got cash boxes and receipt books," Cross said. "We went down to Office Depot and got a bunch of stuff and just went at it almost as business as usual."
The business operated for three weeks out of the living room of a singlewide mobile home that was replaced with a temporary classroom-style trailer.
Since the fire, 109 U-Pull-It has done business without a warehouse and shelves to store parts that employees pull from used cars.
"When we sell a part, we pretty much have to go out there and get it off right then," Young said.
The majority of employees have had to work outside.
"It's been very tough," Young said, "but we really have been blessed with good weather. There were only a couple of days in that whole period where it rained on us during the day."
He does not know what his final expenses will be to rebuild the business.
The warehouse building alone will cost $800,000 to $900,000, excluding equipment and computers. The sprinkler system will be more than $100,000, Young said.
Employees said they are thankful that there was no loss of life in the fire, and they are excited about the new building, which is expected to be completed in December.
"We'll be able to serve the customers better once we get in there," Cross said.
He said it will be nice to have employees who work out in the yard back inside.
"It's going to be a whole lot better on them as far as the weather and all that," Cross said.
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