Greenbank man loses rare cars in fire

Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, July 19, 2006

A Greenbank man lost his prize possessions recently in a fire at his home.

Burned in his shop were two Corbin Sparrows, small electric cars built by a California firm that went out of business in 2002.

Lussmyer’s favorite, a yellow Corbin Sparrow he had named “Tweety,” was one of only about 300 made by the company.

Lussmyer was in the process of restoring a second Corbin Sparrow that was also lost in the fire.

“Now they are a pile of ash. It’s very depressing,” said Lussmyer as he looked at the blackened shell of his large shop.

Lussmyer said to replace them will cost thousands of dollars.

“It just won’t be possible because they are so rare,” he said.

“Everything in the shop either melted or burned. Anything aluminum or copper just melted,” he said.

To add insult to injury, the cars are not covered by his homeowners’ insurance policy.

He also lost a motorhome that he had purchased three weeks earlier, a truck, shelves and work benches filled with bins of tools and parts for his cars and extra lumber.

Fire investigators blame the charger in the motorhome for starting the fire.

“The motorhome was the only thing different in my shop,” Lussmyer said.

About 1 a.m. Friday, June 30, firefighters from Central Whidbey Fire and Rescue and Fire District 3 firefighters responded to Lussmyer’s Greenbank home.

When they arrived, Lussmyer’s shop was engulfed in flames.

The 40-foot-by-60-foot steel structure had flames shooting out both ends of the building.

“I was afraid it would lead to a forest fire,” Lussmyer said.

In fact, the tall fir trees surrounding the shed were blackened by the fire. Tires on a second truck sitting beside the shed also melted from the heat.

“The exterior of the building was so hot it was glowing red,” he said.

Lussmyer said he was asleep when the fire began.

“I heard an explosion, but figured it was kids with fireworks. But then I realized they were too close. I looked out my bedroom window and saw flames shooting out of my garage,” he said.

Firefighters had the fire under control in two hours, but stayed on the scene until 6 a.m.

Corbin Motors in Hollister, Calif. built Sparrows from 1999-2002. Only 285 Corbin Sparrows were manufactured and very few are actually still on the road.

Corbin Sparrows came in two different body styles, a jellybean model, like Lussmyer’s “Tweety,” and a pizzabutt model, a moniker that stuck after Domino’s Pizza ordered several as delivery vehicles.

Gayle Saran can be contacted at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com.