Fire damages Fort Bragg commercial garage

<p>Fort Bragg police say potential catastrophe was averted by passersby who reported an early morning fire at a fuel truck garage and refueling station Monday.</p><p>There were flames about five feet away from a residential petroleum tanker truck in the garage, located behind several underground tanks and across the street from a 76 fuel facility with several tall silo-type storage units, police Lt. John Naulty said.</p><p>“That whole two-block radius is basically all fuel storage,” he said. “It could have been pretty serious.”</p><p>But several people reported the 2:57 a.m. blaze on North Franklin Street between East Elm and Spruce streets, police said.</p><p>Police officers were first to arrive and used extinguishers from their patrol cars to slow the spread of the flames while firefighters were en route, authorities said.</p><p>Investigators believe the blaze was ignited by oil rags left in a plastic bucket on a workbench inside the Walsh Oil truck garage on the property. </p><p>The bucket was against a wall of the structure, near a tanker truck parked inside, Naulty said.</p><p>Flames were climbing the wall when officers arrived, but the overall firefighting effort limited damage to about a 20-foot section of exterior wall and workshop materials stored inside, police said.</p><p>Had flames spread, “it would have been pretty serious,” Naulty said, “because the truck was in there, and then right next to it were a couple of their tanker trucks.”</p>