A garage fire on Coles Ferry Road in Gallatin sent burning embers toward a nearby animal shelter and was followed by reports of loud explosions, turning a fast-moving blaze into a close call for the building next door. Fire crews got it under control within 15 minutes, but not before Marta Mastropasqua was out of bed, on the phone with 911 and spraying the shelter roof with a garden hose.
Mastropasqua said she was sleeping in a camper behind the Animal Rescue Corps when a loud blast shook the camper. She saw an orange glow outside, then flames, and called for help. As embers fell onto the roof and ground, she kept the water running to keep them from catching. Across the street, Ramon Garcia was inside when he heard the boom and stepped outside to see the fire.
The timing made the Gallatin explosion a search term within hours because people on scene were describing not just a garage fire, but a fire with several sharp blasts and a real risk to a shelter caring for dozens of animals. Fire crews arrived three minutes after being dispatched, a pace that likely kept the flames from spreading farther toward the Animal Rescue Corps building.
Jeff Beaman said there were a few explosions while crews were on scene, but he said they lined up with items people normally keep in a garage that can go off when exposed to fire. That explanation fits the scene, but it does not answer the bigger question: what started the blaze in the first place. The cause had not been determined, and investigators were expected to have a better idea in a couple of days.
What is clear now is that a garage fire that could have stayed local briefly became a threat to a neighboring shelter, and it was only a quick response, plus Mastropasqua’s hose, that kept those embers from turning one fire into two. A GoFundMe account has since been created to help the owners of the garage that caught fire.
