Pastor Rushes To Protect Church As Fire Tears Through Nearby North Sacramento Tire Shop
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A Sacramento pastor raced across town to protect his church as firefighters worked to put out a wind-driven blaze at a tire shop across the street.
According to the Sacramento Fire Department, the fire happened Sunday at Unique Tire and Wheels along Del Paso Boulevard near Evergreen Street.
A family member of the tire shop's owner told CBS13 the fire sparked after the owner closed up for the day.
"I think about 2:30 he left from here and everything was cool. And like 4 o'clock he [got a call] at the house, 'Hey you know your building is on fire?'" said Mohammad Shahezad, a relative of the business owner.
Footage from the scene shows heavy smoke in the sky above the area. Firefighters said the blaze was upgraded to a three-alarm fire.
"All we could see was black, dark, smoke, flames," Paul Chamberlin, a groundskeeper from the church across the street, said.
Sacramento Fire told CBS13 that it was a wind-driven fire where there was some spreading to cause some damage to the nearby church. The department couldn't say what the extent of the damage was at this time.
As crews rushed to put out the fire, Chamberlin raced across town from a Father's Day barbecue in Carmichael to help the church he takes care of.
"Frantic calls about a fire, you maybe want to leave a little quicker from where you're at," Chamberlin said.
The church groundskeeper stopped to get a hose on the way to church.
"Immediately, I knew from just approaching the area that it was the tire shop on the corner. And then I just had fear that anything and everything around it was possibly on fire," Chamberlin said.
Armed with a hose and hope, Chamberlin did whatever he could to protect his cherished church.
"By the time I got up on the roof with my son, about two or three more fires were starting in the roof tiles up top. I grabbed my hose and started pointing to the fire department," Chamberlin.
"But, I was able to put the fire out before they got there."
As the smoke cleared and the fire was put out, there was something people were holding on to now that the damage was done.
"I was just hoping that the place was still standing and it could be saved," Chamberlin said.
"We have a good, strong family. We told him not to worry about it. And things happen for the reasons. We believe in that," Shahezad said.
Investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire and where it started.
Sacramento Fire said there was one firefighter taken to the hospital for heat-related injuries, but didn't have an update on his condition at this time.