January 2, 2017
www.usedcarnews.com
Auction Devastated by Fire, Rebuilds For 2017
Photos courtesy of Mid Kansas Auto Auction FIRE SALE: Mid Kansas Auto Auction is shown right after a fire last summer that destroyed the auction. The sale had to shut down the rest of the year to rebuild. The new facilities were still being completed at press time. The auction will have three buildings and will be able to run 300 units, with an upgrade in offices and technology. By Jeffrey Bellant
Rush - Dated Material
Mid Kansas Auto Auction in Hays, Kan., is celebrating the new year with brand new auction facilities after a devastating fire last summer destroyed the former four-lane sale. At the end of December manager Trevor Ottley said workers were putting the finishing touches on the rebuild in the aftermath of the disastrous July 24 fire. On that day, the staff was getting ready to give out a loaner car for someone who had repair work, Ottley said. The loaner was a 2005 Buick LaSabre, which has the battery under the back seat. The bat-
tery was set on a trickle charge and employees left for about an hour, Ottley said. “One of our employees came back and the car was engulfed in flames and the building followed,” he said. Ottley was mowing his lawn and got a call that the auction was on fire. He and his father, Mark Ottley, both live about a quarter of a mile from the sale. “I thought they were joking, but I ran out and looked across and could see a couple hundred feet of flames in the air,” he said. “My dad and I both beat the fire department here.” There were more than a dozen cars in the building and even after
the firefighters got it under control, it sparked up again, Ottley said. Ottley said it was windy day and the fire got so hot it shorted out garage door openers and caused them to open up, allowing the wind to feed the fire. “The fire was so hot, the concrete was exploding,” Ottley said. “It got hot enough to melt the steel beams.” Fire inspectors came out and said everything was hooked up correctly so it was a malfunction in the extension cord, the machine or the car. No one was hurt, but the devastation was total. “We had one facility which en-
compassed everything and everything burnt down,” he said. “We lost all of our servers, all of our data. “So within four hours, everything we’ve done over the past 11 years was gone.” After replacing a server a few years ago, the service provider did not make the proper connection between the server and online backup, so all of the data was lost, Ottley said. “That was much worse than the building,” he said. “We had to start over.” Ottley said the auction couldn’t even register a car after that. Continued on page 6
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