Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Alex Cabrero Reporting"Well, I come from the south end of the valley, and it looked like a bomb had gone off."
After a long night fighting the fire, Salt Lake City investigators now think they have an idea of how it all started. Crews were at the Central Pallet of Utah company early this morning sifting through what was left. That fire began last night, with smoke and flames visible throughout much of the valley.
Since it is a pallet company, there was plenty of wood for the fire to keep roaring. There's not much left of the trucks that were parked in the yard. But no matter how bad the fire was last night, this morning, Central Pallet was open for business.
Rex Merkey: "All I was thinking was, there's everything going up, you know?"
When you see a fire this big, this intense, you'd think it has to be a total loss.
Rex Merkey: "We're going on. We're not giving up."
Nearly 10 hours after Central Pallet of Utah looked more like a wildfire, workers were back on the job as if nothing even happened.
Rex Merkey, Central Pallet of Utah: "We'll be out here to do everything we can to service our customers on time."
Talk about job loyalty. Rex Merkey is the manager of Central Pallet and if only he didn't look towards the front part of his business, he'd never know there was a fire.
Even with all the dry wood, the flames were kept to one area.
Reinhard Kauffman, Salt Lake City Fire Dept.: "I think it's a tribute to the firefighters who controlled the fire and kept it right where it is here in the yard."
Last night, several firefighters did whatever they could to save the business.
Dennis McKone: "It was one of the largest fires we've had in a long time."
They even cut through a fence to get closer, which probably made the difference.
Dennis McKone: "At one point, we had flames anywhere from 50 to 75 feet in the air."
Investigators are looking into the possibility sparks from a train ignited dry grass, which sits just a few feet from Central Pallet. But not even that could keep these guys out of business.
Rex Merkey: "We got a lot of stuff that was saved just because of the fire department. We'll be open Monday, and we'll be ready for business, and we'll try to fill every order we can."
No one was there when the fire started, that means, thankfully, no injuries.
Fire crews have been coming back regularly today just to make sure any hot spots don't re-ignite.
