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Tragedy struck on Tuesday evening, November 28, when Jimbo's Auto Repair Shop at Hillsboro, southwest Ohio, caught on fire due to a massive explosion. Four people were reportedly in the building at the time of the explosion. While one person was injured and taken to the hospital in a stable condition, three people, unfortunately, passed away.
Although the reason for the explosion has not yet been confirmed, surveillance footage and footage shot by journalists of the burning Auto repair shop quickly spread around the internet, causing widespread panic. People were saddened by the increase in the number of fires in Ohio and speculated on what the reason for the explosion might have been.
Jimbo's Auto Repair Shop goes up in flames, leaving three dead
Located at 502 S. High Street, Hillsboro, Ohio, Jimbo's Auto Repair Shop was rocked by an explosion that caused a huge fire. This, in turn, led to widespread damage to the building and a few cars around the structure's parking lot. The incident occurred on Tuesday, at around 4 pm.
David Manning, Paint Creek Joint EMS & Fire District Chief, confirmed the explosion to local media outlets. He detailed that four people were reportedly in the shop during the explosion. Three of them succumbed to their injuries, while one injured person was taken to a local hospital and was in stable condition.
The identities of the people who passed away were not released by authorities. Further, while the cause of the explosion has not yet been confirmed, Manning revealed that the explosion was felt at a firehouse, which was around four or five blocks away. He also confirmed that there was no known damage to any of the structures surrounding Jimbo's Auto Repair Shop.
According to Newsweek, Manning had confirmed that eight fire departments had immediately responded to the situation, along with the Hillsboro Police Department and the Ohio Department of Transportation, who shut down a part of U.S. Route 62 due to the fire.
An eyewitness named Clint Moore told WCPO that he was "terrified" by the sudden explosion. The outlet stated that Moore was working a block away from the explosion, and he, along with a few others, had tried to get close to the building to offer help. However, it reportedly seemed like something kept on exploding inside, and the fire was too intense. He told the outlet:
"Everyone was scrambling around the building, cars were burning up, it was pandemonium. It was a real war zone. It was unreal."
Videos of the fire and the explosion soon began circulating on the internet. Surveillance footage of the exact moment the building exploded was shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by WLWT's Sheree Paolello. Reporters and journalists like Luke Jones also shared videos of the burning building filling up the sky with thick smoke.
Netizens speculate the cause of the auto repair shop explosion
Some of the footage was joined together and shared by the popular X handle, @rawsalerts, whose tweet went viral, amassing over 192,000 views, at the time of writing this article.
Netizens were stunned by the intensity of the explosion and speculated on what might have caused it. People were also saddened by the amount of bad things happening in Ohio.
As mentioned above, the cause of the explosion and fire has not yet been determined at the time of writing this article. The incident is being investigated by the Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office.
