Above: An Arkville Fire Department truck at the scene of a fire at Becker's Tire Service on Route 30 in Grand Gorge. Photo by Lissa Harris.

A massive fire that broke out just past midnight on Thursday night gutted Becker's Tire Service, a longstanding local business on Route 30 in Grand Gorge. 

Firefighters were dispatched to the blaze at 12:19am, said Delaware County Emergency Services director Rich Bell, who was on the scene Friday along with county and state investigators. No one was in the building at the time the fire broke out.

Between 15 and 20 local fire departments responded to the fire, Bell said.

"They battled it for hours before getting it under control," said Bell. 

The cause of the fire is still unknown, Bell said. 

The building was a total loss, said owners Richard and Machelle Haight, longtime employees who purchased the business from its former owners in 2008. 

Richard said the business had just gotten a large delivery of new stock, which was destroyed in the fire. 

Ride safe, Catskills: Two local skateboarders have collided with cars in the last week, one of whom was killed. Photo of Jart skateboard by Flickr user Steffen Ramsaier; published under Creative Commons license.

On Tuesday, a Long Island teenager on a skateboard was struck by a car in the Middletown hamlet of Arkville. It's the second local accident in a week in which a car and a skateboarder collided violently.

According to Delaware County sheriff's deputies, 40-year-old Jessica Koester of the town of Middletown was driving her 2007 Subaru on Glen Acres Road in Arkville when she collided with 19-year-old Rolando Martinez of Montauk, who was skateboarding toward her. Koester told police she swerved to avoid Martinez, but was unable to avoid hitting him.