MONTEVIDEO - You know it’s bad news when your winter slumber is interrupted at 4:30 in the morning by loud knocking on your front door.
“I could see the smoke,’’ said Dan Dirksen, recalling how he opened the door of his home and knew instantly what brought Burl Tjaden, a snow plow operator with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, to his door.
Dirksen lives next door to the source of the smoke: His truck repair, service and parts business called Dan’s Shop Inc., along Minnesota Highway 7 east of Montevideo. “I stuck my head in the front door. The smoke was four feet off the floor. I never went inside,’’ Dirksen said.
The official temperature stood at minus 14 and the windchill was minus 22 Jan. 23, 2014 when Tjaden spotted and reported the fire.
By 7 a.m. it was all over. The fire had gutted the wood-framed buildings and their contents, everything from a hundred or so large tires to trucks and an entire department filled with parts of all types.
One year later, the business is operating in a new, 90-foot by 204-foot metal-framed building on the very same location.
“Not saying we’re 100 percent back to normal, but we’re getting close,’’ Dirksen said.
Dirksen launched his business in 1992 in a small shop on his farm. He was farming and had completed studies in diesel and truck mechanics in Canby and Willmar. He wanted to open his own truck repair business.
The business has been growing ever since, from an original staff of three to nine today.
Over-the-road and other trucking operations based in the area are hauling an increasing volume of freight.
And, more farms than ever before are relying on large trucks. “There’s a lot more heavy-duty trucks out in the rural area,’’ said Dirksen.
No different than automobiles, today’s trucks are computer dependent. Even the most capable home mechanic needs to turn to a professional shop to plug into the computer software for the answer when the “check engine’’ light is flashing.
Computers also play a role in helping this business grow. The business is seeing growth in online sales for its large inventory of parts for earlier model Peterbuilt Trucks, as well as for kits to converted air-operated windshield wipers to electric.
And of course, the business stocks a wide range of parts for all models of modern trucks, including Cummings and Caterpillar.
Putting it all back together after the fire was difficult.
For several months after the fire, the nine-member staff worked in the small shop building located on Dirksen’s farm, where he first started. “It was just miserable on the employees to be crammed into that small space but we made do with what we had,’’ Dirksen said.
The lack of space meant there was a lot of work that could not be done, but he had little choice, Dirksen said. There were no large buildings available to lease.
Construction on the new shop building had to wait until the frost was out of the ground, Dirksen said.
It wasn’t until the busy, fall harvest season that the crew could move into the newly-erected building. Only when the building was fully wired and functional did they feel that the worst was behind them, Dirksen said.
It’s hard to know how much business was lost as a result of the fire, but Dirksen said customers have been good about coming back.
The fire had originated in the parts delivery vehicle, which had been parked inside. The vehicle was too badly damaged by the fire to determine what caused it to start on fire, Dirksen said.
He is grateful that no one was in the shop or injured by the fire that night.
There’s no way to sugar coat the challenges that follow a fire like that.
“I don’t really have one thing that stands out that keeps you going day-to-day,’’ Dirksen said.
All you can do “is take it one day at a time,” he said.
There’s one big day ahead. Early this summer, Dan’s Shop will host a grand re-opening celebration to let everyone see the new facility and thank all of the loyal customers and others who have helped the business get back on the road to success.
