Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
He’s not happy with the way it happened, he said, but he needed the forced retirement.
The fire that destroyed Sweet Home Radiator and Muffler Shop two weeks ago was “the best thing to ever happen to me,” according to owner Ron Forsythe.
The fire caused an estimated $250,000 in damage to the business, located at 1937 Main St.
“I’m not going to rebuild,” Forsythe, 66, said. “My intention was to stay right there and drop dead next to the bench. I’m a diehard. I love building the trannies.
“Everything’s gone. There’s nothing left whatsoever. I needed a forced retirement.”
Forsythe has 1.5 acres east of the southeast corner of 18th and Main. Properties nearby have sold well, he said, and he plans to sell his property and retire.
Right now, he is busy cleaning up the burned building, he said.
He said he has not had any difficulties with hazardous materials so far. He received a variety of gear from a hazardous materials team that came to the shop, and officials told him what he needs to do during the cleanup.
He has heard “a lot of lies” about three 55-gallon drums filled with oil that blew up and spilled, he said.
The only thing that leaked was 12 quarts of transmission fluid, which was cleaned up, he said.
Ever since the fire, he has been working every day, getting rid of the ash and debris, he said. Soon, he plans to have John Smith come in with his equipment and knock the remains of the building down.
Forsythe said he had insurance on his equipment and stock but not on the building itself, he said, but with the value of his property, he thinks he will do all right in retirement.
“I’m going to put up a garage to put my tools in,” he said, but he doesn’t plan to do any work except to fix his friends’ and family members’ vehicles.
The day of the fire, “Albert (a friend) beat me to work,” Forsythe said. “He got in there, and he lit a fire in my wood stove.”
Forsythe arrived at the shop but didn’t go inside, he said. His friend apparently left the door open and met Forsythe outside to go to breakfast at the Skyline Restaurant.
Another friend spotted the fire nine or 10 minutes later, he said. He stopped and told Forsythe about the fire. Forsythe arrived to find the rear of his shop in flames.
According to Alice Grovom, whose husband Roger owned the radiator shop for about 10 years, the building once was two separate “square boxes,” constructed in the early 1950s, that had been joined with a pitched roof by the time Roger Grovom bought it “around 1960” and moved his radiator shop into the building.
Grovom sold the shop in about 1970, his wife said, when his health declined.
Forsythe has owned the shop since 1976, he said. “I loved what I was doing. I had no intention of even quitting before I die. This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I needed to quit.”
Since the shop burned, “all I want to do is get in my motor home and take a ride” or “sit home and do nothing,” he said. “I don’t have any desire to build another tranny. I just want to go play. All I want to do is go fishing.”
He’s looking forward to taking his boat out on weekdays when the lake isn’t so busy, something he hasn’t been able to do while running his business, he said. He looks forward to driving to the coast for the weekend and not having to rush back to work the next day.
His girlfriend, Wendy Phillips, and her daughter and son-in-law, Carrie Rae and Barry Jay Thomas, have been helping him clean up the shop along with Joe Tenbusch and Jerry Belige, who told him about the fire. All of them have donated their time to help him.