Crews battle overnight fire at Kittanning auto body parts store

Owners of a local auto body parts store plan on rebuilding after a fire ravaged through their Kittanning location earlier this week.

Crews spent hours battling a fire at api Autobody Products that started around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday. The scene was not cleared until around 3 a.m. Thursday.

“It’s obviously a surprise,” said Jeremy Palermo, manager at the company. “It’s nothing you want to see happen to anybody’s store or anybody’s home or anything … We’ve been in business for over 50 years now and never had anything like this. Unfortunately things like this do happen.”

The Kittanning store, located along South Water Street, opened in 1988 as one of the first three locations. Locally, there are api Autobody Products stores in New Kensington, McKees Rocks, Beaver Falls and Butler.

According to Palermo, whose parents own the company, officials are working to determine if the walls are structurally sound. He noted that the roof did collapse due to the heat of the flames.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

“Given the circumstances we’re extremely fortunate,” Palermo said. “There were a lot of firefighters there to help us.”