Ten days after an electrical fire, Robinson Brothers Ford Lincoln is fully functional once again. But it’s hardly business as usual at the Airline Highway dealership. For the next several months, cleaning and construction crews will be onsite repairing the damaged building, which housed the dealership’s administrative, IT and accounting offices as well as all Ford operations.
“There were only two vehicles in the building because 99.9% of our vehicles are on the lot, so we were very lucky in that there were no vehicles damaged,” says general manager Chris Savage. “But I never would wish this on my worst enemy—you’re not prepared for all the things that go into recovering from a fire when there’s smoke and soot.”
The fire started around 10 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and lasted for several hours, eventually burning itself out. Employees didn’t discover it until they came into the office the following morning because the metal panels around the electrical system had contained the fire. Still, smoke had plumed upwards, covering the entire building in soot. What’s worse, the dealership’s entire electrical system was destroyed, threatening all IT and communications systems.
Savage says the dealership’s local contractors and service providers went above and beyond the call of duty to rig temporary solutions using generators, By Monday, March 16, the dealership was open for business, albeit operating out of the adjacent Lincoln building.
“It’s a little bit like a refugee camp and it’s discombobulating,” Savage says. “We literally had to move every finance office, every sales office, and our entire accounting office is strewn out across our other buildings.”
Savage estimates repairs will cost upwards of $500,000, though he says it’s too soon to say for sure. Sales, however, have remained strong, due in part to a special promotion. The dealership needs to make space for construction and cleaning crews that will remain onsite for the next several months.
“I have half a football field worth of space that I need to clear so we’ve started running ads,” he says. “It’s a fire sale, literally.”
—Stephanie Riegel
