Bella Vista Street Department, equipment, burn in early morning fire

The building housing the Bella Vista Street Department, 414 Pinion Valley Drive, was destroyed in a fire Sunday morning. The Bella Vista Fire Department was called out at 7:28 a.m. after a person going to work called the fire in.

There was smoke coming out of the building when fire crews arrived, said Fire Chief Steve Sims. It took about 45 minutes to knock down the fire, Sims said. There were no injuries reported.

The contents of the building were fully insured through the Arkansas Municipal League, said Peter Christie, mayor, who was on the scene of the fire.

Five pickup trucks, a dump truck, a street sweeper and two tractors as well as some smaller equipment was destroyed as the fire swept through the equipment bay of the building, assistant fire chief Brian Wolfgang reported to the mayor.

Christie said the mechanic’s bay and a smaller building used for repairing the vehicles on the south side of the equipment area was not damaged, so repair work can continue. Also a office trailer next to the equipment building received minor damage.

Many of the department’s dump trucks were parked outside the destroyed building and appeared undamaged.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do next,” Christie said in the aftermath of the fire.

This is the second fire in less than a year in the area. In May 2014, the TH Rogers Lumber Co. retail store and warehouse as well as two retail buildings were destroyed in a fire that took place to the west of the Street Department building on U.S. 71.

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