Crews battle overnight commercial fire in Newton

NEWTON, N.C. — Multiple agencies responded to a commercial fire in Newton overnight.

A large fire could be seen on the horizon near North College Avenue early Friday morning.

Several crews responded to the scene of the commercial fire around 3 a.m.

Billy Spears told Channel 9’s Dave Faherty that he could see the fire from the porch of his home. He said the old buildings along his property have been broken into recently.

“We try to keep an eye on things down there,” Spears said. “I’ve had to build a fence down there to keep them out of our yard. I’ve been broken into too. Tools stolen and stuff. I’m just glad no one got hurt.”

Officials said that when fire crews arrived, flames could be seen shooting high above the building which was previously home to Specialty Welding and Machines.

The call originally came in as a grass and woods fire, authorities said, but investigators have ruled that out as a cause.

Channel 9 has confirmed with investigators that there was power running to the property at the time. They are looking in to reports of previous break-ins.

Dennis Hefner owns the property and he said there used to be an old furniture factory at the location. But he was using the property to support one of his passions — restoring old cars. He has six cars stored in the building.

Hefner told Faherty that he has hoped to work on the cars in retirement. He said he had taken precautions earlier this week after items were stolen out of the buildings.

“They’re less than rogues,” he said. “They are people who don’t care about anything but what they want to do and we gotta get them off the streets.”

No additional details have been made available.

This is a developing story. Check back with wsoctv.com for updates.