Newton’s Body Shop burns, investigation underway

Published 2:08 pm Tuesday, January 29, 2019

TIFTON — Fire crews from the Tifton Fire Department responded to a fire that broke out at Newton’s Body Shop, located on Central Ave, in the early hours of Jan. 29.

The fire was contained and an investigation into the cause was handed to the state fire marshal’s office.

The body shop is currently closed pending the investigation. Yellow caution tape cordoned off the building Tuesday, the top of which was discolored from the fire.

Newton’s manager Russ Ogletree, who was waiting to intercept deliveries in front of the burned-out shop, said the main part of the building that was damaged was the office.

“Only one customer vehicle was damaged, and we already let them know,” he said. Other customer records were lost in the fire, since they were stored in the office, leaving him unable to notify any other customers that their vehicles are undamaged.

Ogletree said that while they are still waiting on the official cause of the fire to come from the state fire marshal’s office, it looked as though the fire was electrical in origin.

Ogletree was upbeat about what comes next for the shop, saying that they’re expecting to have a temporary office set up by the end of next week.

“We’ll be up and running,” he said. “Rebuilding the office will take months, but we’ll be up and running.”

Follow Eve Copeland on Twitter @EveCopelandTTG.