By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

VERONA - A spectacular blaze Thursday morning destroyed a century of history in Northern Kentucky when a building where Model Ts were once repaired burned to the ground.

Harry Reed, 79, of Verona wondered where he and his retired friends would meet every morning for coffee as he watched the rubble of the Verona Garage smolder at noon, eight hours after the first reports of fire were made to 911 operators.

"I've done business there since '58," said Mr. Reed. "I've been hanging out there since I retired in 1980. A bunch of us old retired guys hang out there, drink coffee and tell tales. I don't know where we will go now."

Verona Fire Chief Eddie Coyle said smoke from the blaze was so thick that firefighters initially could not tell which building was on fire. Fifty firefighters - from Verona, Walton, Union, Crittenden, Glencoe and Gallatin County - kept the fire from spreading, but not before it engulfed the wood building that housed the garage and a nearby frame house that had been vacant.

"The main building is old, over 100 years old," Chief Coyle said. "It's been a garage since 1910 (it was a funeral parlor before that). It had oil-soaked wood floors. We knew this would be an extremely hot fire, and we were protecting the other buildings from exposure to the fire."

Firefighters closed Ky. 14 and Ky. 16, the intersection surrounded by Verona, an unincorporated crossroads with eight to 10 scattered buildings.

The Walton-Verona school district told its 1,000 pupils to stay home after bus drivers said they wouldn't be able to get around the roadblocks.

The cause of the fire, which appeared to have started in the basement, was not known Thursday. No one was injured. The building's owner said he was insured. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com