St. Paul auto body shop arson: Owner looks for answers as Karen organization offers help
For Soe Doh, this is the worst of times.
The east side St. Paul auto body shop he started with his brother ten years ago is now in ruins.
“Too much, you know,” he says. “It’s just heartbreaking for me because this place is, like, I spend more time here than at my own home.”
On Jan. 11, at 5:30 in the morning, St. Paul fire crews responded to a massive blaze at the shop the brothers had dubbed “SKD Auto Tek.”
RELATED: St. Paul auto body shop condemned after catching fire Saturday morning
Dennis Chisholm, who lives next door, was awakened by his dog’s barking — and saw the flames.
“You could just see the flames popping up like three feet past the structure,” he recalls.
It would take sixty firefighters several hours to bring the blaze under control.
Soe Doh says he got an urgent call from a business friend, alerting him to the fire.
“He says, ‘So, your building was on fire,’” he remembers. “I thought it was joking.”
Later, checking a ring camera, the brothers found several images, which they turned over to investigators: two masked men, one carrying a red container, one video showing a 3:10 a.m. timestamp.
One minute later, another video shows the men leaving, empty-handed.
“They came in with a gas can; they got out with no gas can,” Soe Doh says. “We saw that and said, oh man, somebody did this to us.”
He says he now believes the fire was deliberately set.
St. Paul Police say the case is now being investigated as an arson.
Looking inside, you can see all the devastation.
Cars, computers, tools — all gone.
Soe Doh says it will be very hard to replace everything.
He says $50,000 in insurance will help pay for some items — but his losses, he believes, are much higher.
“For us, we are building this business from the ground up,” he declares. “We started with one bay in Little Canada. We know there’s need for the community here, for the immigrant community and refugees that come here that don’t speak any English.”
Soe Doh estimates over the years, he’s served hundreds of immigrant customers with car care.
He says he’s also taught mechanical skills to numerous people, and helped others to earn their Commercial Driver’s License, enabling them to drive trucks.
“He’s put drivers through school that came to work for him,” Chisholm explains. “Some left and found they were unhappy working for anyplace else and came back.”
After everything that happened, the Karen Organization of Minnesota is trying to help.
“We were really devastated to learn that this had happened to his shop, and insurance would not be covering the full cost of the damages,” says Alexis Walstad, Co-Executive Director of the group. “A lot of people who work in the shop are from the Karen community as well as a lot of the people doing commercial driving across the country.”
The organization — a Roseville-based service hub for refugees and immigrants, is launching a crowd-funding effort to help pay for replacement tools and equipment lost in the fire.
The group has noted Soe Doh’s work to help new arrivals with jobs and training.
“From day one, their goal has really been to help the community here both with affordable car repair and job opportunities,” Walstad notes. “For a long time, we have had a lot of interest from community members in working in either auto repair or commercial driving. Both of those are pathways that can be really difficult to get into, especially for someone who is not fluent in English.”
A St. Paul Fire Department spokesperson says the building is now condemned — and that the cause of the blaze is under investigation by fire and law enforcement.
Meanwhile, Soe Doh says he’s determined to rebuild.
Chisholm says he hopes that happens.
“Oh yeah, definitely. Good neighbor, good people,” he exclaims. “You could pick a neighbor; he’d be the one you want.”
“It’s something I’m proud to do, and I will continue doing it,” Soe Doh adds.
You can find the Karen Organization’s crowd-funding link HERE.