Brecksville taxpayers will not pay a dime of the estimated $1.6 million bill to restore the Blossom Hill service garage on Oakes Road after an April 7 fire, city officials say.
The city's insurer, Selective Insurance, will cover the entire cost of cleanup, building repairs and equipment replacement, Service Director Joe Kickel told City Council on Oct. 20, according to cleveland.com. Kickel cautioned that the final number could shift as contractors continue work on the building.
"This is kind of like a fluid process as we're going along," Kickel told council.
Fire report still missing
Six months after the blaze, Brecksville still has not received the fire investigation report from Selective Insurance, which is based in Branchville, New Jersey, Kickel said.
Mayor Daryl Kingston said in June that Selective had hired a third party to investigate the fire and that the investigation had been completed. The city never received a copy.
Kickel told council the city's request for the report may have "fallen through the cracks" because of personnel changes at Selective. Cleveland.com reported that a Selective representative did not return emails asking for the report or an explanation for the delay.
Where the money goes
The two largest line items account for most of the $1.6 million total. Council authorized paying Servpro $691,483 for cleaning the garage, repairing water damage and restoring the building. Cleanup began in April, immediately after the fire, Kickel said.
In June, council approved $727,598 to replace equipment destroyed in the blaze, including a street sweeper, three Safety Town train cars and holiday decorations, cleveland.com reported. Those two amounts total roughly $1.42 million.
Second garage fire in two years
The April 7 fire was the second time in two years that a Brecksville service building caught fire. In February 2024, a fire broke out at the city's main service garage next to City Hall on Brecksville Road. The state fire marshal's office ruled that blaze accidental.
Both fires originated in Freightliner brand street sweepers, according to cleveland.com's earlier reporting. No one was injured in the April 7 fire, Kingston said. No injuries were reported in the 2024 fire either, according to city records.
The city has since replaced both Freightliner sweepers with Tymco brand models, Kingston said. Firefighters received an alarm at about 6 a.m. April 7 at Blossom Hill, a city-owned property. Sprinklers inside the building had activated by the time crews arrived, and firefighters from Broadview Heights, Richfield, Independence and Macedonia assisted.
