A fire that tore through Brecksville's city-owned service garage at Blossom Hill on Oakes Road back in April is now expected to cost an estimated $1.6 million in cleanup, restoration and equipment-replacement expenses. City officials say insurance should cover the entire bill, but more than six months after the April 7 blaze, they still haven't seen the fire investigation report that could explain how it started.
The $1.6 million figure, confirmed by Cleveland.com, covers the combined cost of cleaning and restoring the building along with replacing equipment lost in the fire. Brecksville City Service Director Joe Kickel said the city's insurance will cover the entire bill. He also cautioned that the estimated loss may change while contractors continue working on the building, meaning the final number could still shift.
To handle the physical cleanup, the city hired Servpro, a company based in Gallatin, Tennessee, to clean the garage, repair water damage and restore the structure. Building cleanup began in April, immediately after the fire, according to Kickel. This month, Brecksville City Council authorized a total payment of $691,483 to Servpro for that work.
Equipment Losses Included Safety Town Train Cars
Separate from the building restoration costs, council authorized $727,598 in June to replace equipment destroyed or damaged in the fire. That replacement list included a street sweeper, three Safety Town train cars and holiday decorations, according to the same cleveland.com report. Together, the two council authorizations already total more than $1.4 million of the projected $1.6 million bill.
Investigators have determined that the fire originated in a street sweeper, the same brand and model as the one involved in a separate 2024 fire at the city's main service garage. Following that earlier string of incidents, Brecksville replaced its two Freightliner brand street sweepers with Tymco brand street sweepers, Mayor Daryl Kingston has said.
Insurance Report Still Missing Months Later
The lingering mystery in Brecksville is not the cost, but the paperwork. Selective Insurance hired a third party to investigate the fire, and Mayor Kingston said in June that the investigation had been completed by then. Yet as of October, the city still has not received a copy of the fire investigation report, Kickel said.
Kickel said the city's request for the report may have fallen through the cracks due to personnel changes at Selective Insurance, the Branchville, New Jersey-based insurer. A Selective Insurance representative did not return emails asking for a copy of the report or an explanation for why it had not been provided, the outlet's reporting notes.
A Second Fire in Two Years
This is not the first time a street sweeper has sparked trouble inside a Brecksville service garage. A February 2024 fire at the city's main garage destroyed four city vehicles, including a street sweeper in which that fire started, and damaged the building and roof, according to an earlier cleveland.com report. City officials at the time estimated damage to the vehicles and building at $638,460.
In the aftermath of that 2024 fire, council approved hiring DSC Architects in Berea for $32,700 to design reconstruction of the fire-damaged section of the garage, per the same cleveland.com account. Separately, according to the Scriptype, council authorized $800,000 for replacement capital equipment, $75,000 for hand tools and operating equipment, $30,000 for rental operating equipment and $10,000 for operating equipment and materials after that earlier blaze. The replacement street sweeper that followed the 2024 fire was being purchased for $76,808, Scriptype reported.
With the April fire now pushing projected costs past $1.6 million and the investigation report still unaccounted for, Brecksville officials are left waiting on Selective Insurance to explain what happened inside the Oakes Road garage this spring — even as contractors keep working and the final price tag remains subject to change.
