FIRE DAMAGES CAPE OIL AND LUBE BUSINESS

A local lube and oil change business suffered from costly fire damage after one of the bays burned Tuesday.

Jim Mungle, the owner of the Finish Line, 889 N. Kingshighway, said it could have been worse. He credited the Cape Girardeau Fire Department with saving his building.

"If they hadn't got here when they did, the whole thing would have gone up," he said.

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the call at 9:37 a.m, said Capt. Mearlin Allen. He said the fire stayed in the north bay and some of it went up in the attic. Firefighters were forced to knock a hole in an eaves to allow for ventilation.

Allen said that the floor of the third bay was being cleaned with gasoline. Some kind of flash occurred which ignited gasoline and some paint.

He said the cause of the flash was not determined.

Mungle said he was walking around the building about 9:30 a.m. when he saw smoke coming out of the third bay. This bay was in the process of being treated, he said, and that included painting it.

"As far as we know, the paint caught on fire," he said. "Someone may have thrown a cigarette there or something, we really don't know.

"We tried to fight it with a water hose but we couldn't control it."

Mungle's sister-in-law, Norma Mungle of Cape Girardeau, said she was among the first to see smoke coming out of the bay. She had taken her car there for repair.

"I never saw flames," she said. "Just a bunch of smoke."

When she saw the smoke, she said she ran to the business' administration building, which sits to the north. She told one of the employees to call the fire department.

Insurance personnel were on the scene. Mungle estimated the damage to the 10-year-old building at about $25,000. The north side of the building was damaged, including a sign. The upper edge of the building was blackened.