A well-known mechanical business is cranking up again just over three weeks after a devastating fire forced its closure.
Sugar Road Tyre and Mechanical quietly reopened its doors this week just around the corner from its burnt and blackened usual premises on one of Maroochydore’s main thoroughfares.
The fire, which broke out not long after closing time on August 19, gutted the front office area before spreading into the tyre store and roof of the workshop, where it caused smoke damage.
A shed at the rear of Chaplin Place, just off Sugar Road, is the business’s new digs until an insurance claim is finalised and owner Anthony Neilson can make some decisions about the damaged premises.
Mr Neilson said juggling insurance processes and resurrecting operations had been difficult.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.
Mr Neilson had expected his insurance to cover wages for the business’s employees until he was able to re-open but no payment has yet materialised, despite talk by the insurer of a payout.
“I’m paying them out of my savings,” he said.
Mr Neilson said he had not yet been able to fully inspect the burnt-out premises to fully ascertain the extent of the damage and what work might be needed to re-open there.
He said he had been told by a fire investigator that the fire started in an uninterrupted power supply – a battery back-up – for the security camera system at the Sugar Road premises but he had not yet seen a report by an independent investigator for the insurance company.
There was no doubt in his mind about whether to try to get the business up and running again while awaiting the outcome of his insurance claim.
“I’ve got no choice. I’ve got kids to feed,” he said.
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Mr Neilson said he was grateful to Maroochy Smash Repairs, which offered him a lease on a spare shed so that he could re-open.
“We started moving tools from the workshop last week and have been doing limited bookings this week but it’s only been word of mouth so far,” he said.
“The only thing we can’t do is wheel alignments. We’re using someone else to do that for us.
“There’s no store for tyres – we’re just buying those as we need them, but we usually get them the next day.”
A print of Kouta, Mr Neilson’s dog, who was a fixture at the business and perished in the fire due to smoke, takes pride of place in the office.
The business still has the same phone number and Mr Neilson said business and customer records had been retained on a hard drive that his IT person had been able to transfer into a new computer.
Mr Neilson aims to reach 50 per cent of the business’s usual capacity at the shed but said it was hard to think too far ahead.
“We’re just going to suck it and see. My biggest headache at the moment is insurance. Once that’s sorted out, then we can think about moving forward,” he said.
Mr Neilson thanked family, friends, employees and customers who had stuck by him following the fire.
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