VANDERGRIFT (KDKA) — A fire that destroyed a Westmoreland County business has been ruled arson.

Someone broke into Kochka’s Towing and Car Care Service in Vandergrift early Sunday morning and stole money from a register before setting some muffler boxes on fire with a torch.

The flames quickly spread through the more than 50-year-old family-owned business.

“It was just like an inferno,” Joyce Kochka, the owner’s wife, said. “I mean, it was just going up.”

Monday, family and friends came together to clean and salvage what they could.

The fire caused $600,000 in damage.

“I don’t know anybody cannot have compassion for anybody,” Lyndsey Bigley, granddaughter of the owner, said. “It’s not just our family that has to suffer through it – it’s also the 10 workers that work here that are now out of a job.”

“I just can’t believe someone could be so cruel,” she continued.

The family is vowing to rebuild.

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