A small explosion is believed to be the cause of a fire that destroyed a shop at an Andalusia residence Thursday night.

Andalusia Fire Chief Ethan Dorsey said the fire department responded to 814 East Second St. at 7:58 p.m. and that the fire was contained in the owner’s garage.

“He was working on a jet ski and apparently, it backfired,” Dorsey said. “He actually had a kind of an explosion in the shop. I don’t know if it was from the gas fumes built up under the seat. He had been working on the carburetor on it. When he did, it back fired; well, it did explode.”

Dorsey said four AFD fire trucks responded to the call.

Dorsey said the fire was contained and didn’t spread to the home, and declared the garage a total loss.

“It took us a little while partly because the top hat had fallen in,” he said. “It had so much gas in it, the fire tried to come back. We had to cut several holes on the outside of the building, so we could put water on the areas that were still trying to burn.”

Dorsey said the owner, Ken Clark, suffered only minor injuries as a result of the fire.