SAN ANTONIO – The owner of a South side auto recycling yard hopes to turn up some new information on the person who started a fire at his business last summer, nearly causing it to shut down.
Danny Ramirez, owner of Danny's Auto Recycling, said he's considering offering a reward in the hope of convincing someone with information to come forward.
"I'm out of a lot, financially," Ramirez said, "and it's very frustrating in a situation that I wish I knew the perpetrator."
Someone set fire to an auto crushing machine July 21, nearly causing Ramirez's entire operation in the 900 block of Somerset Road to shut down. The machine, worth about a quarter of million dollars, is the main muscle in his business.
"Whoever did it had knowledge of what to destroy so this machine would be inoperable," he said. "I'm sure there's someone out there that actually knows what happened."
Ramirez said he believes the firebug is someone in the auto recycling industry. With the price of metal at a premium right now, competition is fierce, he said.
Arson investigators, however, have not identified a suspect at all.
Capt. Chris Casals, with the San Antonio Fire Department's Arson Bureau, said investigators have run out of leads.
He said the cause of the fire has been labeled "criminal mischief," but there is not enough information to show who is responsible.
Fire department records show firefighters and arson investigators also responded to a fire Nov. 29 in a scrap pile at another yard owned by Ramirez, in the 9600 block of New Laredo Highway.
While Ramirez said he has suspicions that someone also intentionally set that fire, Casals said there is no evidence to prove that case was arson.