A kerosene heater fire sparked by fumes from a leaky snowmobile gas tank destroyed a Richfield Springs business last week. Bobnick’s Tractor and Snowmobiles Parts owner Scott Kessler said the fire destroyed the building and its contents, leaving only the four walls standing. Kessler said they did not have fire insurance. “It’s one of those things. We didn’t put insurance on it when we first got it because we wanted to see if it did well or not, and just never thought about it again after that. We figured, why insure it if we’re not going to be using it?” This is Kessler’s fourth winter owning the shop, which was originally owned by Dick Bobnick for the seven or eight years prior, Kessler said. The fire causes a major financial setback to the shop, which has been experiencing poor sales due to the lack of seasonable winter weather. “Even Christmas sales were way down this year,” he added. Bobnick’s sells clothing and accessories for snowmobiles, all terrain vehicles (ATVs), lawnmowers and motorcycles. As far as plans for rebuilding goes, Kessler could not comment on what their plans would include. “We’ll tear this down and clean it up. Another building near it burnt also so that’s going to have to come down too. So we actually are losing two buildings.” While the fire destroyed his garage, which also served as a workshop for repairing and maintaining snowmobiles, snowblowers, and other equipment, like chainsaws and lawnmower engines, the adjacent building was used for storage. Luckily, he noted, “only the building was damaged; we didn’t lose anything out of the storage building.” Kessler said that the roof caught on fire and made the structure unsound. “If we get a lot of snow it will collapse so we need to tear it down before it collapses.” Even with the devastation experienced, Kessler focused on the positive and thanked the Richfield Springs Fire Department. “I just want to thank them for their timely response, and their man hours and how quick they were to get the fire out so there wasn’t more lost.” As of press time, Kessler did not have an estimated dollar amount on the loss resulting from the fire. “We’re going to stick it out. We’ll have to do something to rebuild, just not sure what yet,” said Kessler. He and his wife, Marilyn, have raised their three children in Richfield Springs. Kessler moved here full time in 1979, after spending a lifetime of summers here visiting his grandparents and relatives.
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