GARDEN CITY — Two Garden City businesses began the slow process Wednesday of assessing the damage from a bizarre single-car accident Tuesday night that claimed the life of a Hanceville man.

David Brent Rouse, 32, was killed after his Chevrolet SUV crashed into the C & U Upholstery Supply Company and burst into flames off U.S. Highway 31. The accident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Rouse’s vehicle initially crashed into a pair of gas pumps at the Garden City Chevron station, located on the highway’s west side.

Moments after that impact, said witnesses, the vehicle left the scene and headed south, only to crash through the wall of the upholstery shop on the other side of the highway. The fire that resulted from that second crash caused significant burn and smoke damage to both the building, and the inventory inside.

The service station, on the right side of the highway if traveling southbound, is more than a quarter-mile away from the upholstery shop where Rouse was pronounced dead. Alabama State Troopers said in a late Wednesday press release that they are still investigating the circumstances of the accident.

The gas station and the upholstery shop represent a significant piece of Garden City’s small handful of retail establishments. For Mayor Tim Eskew, the focus Wednesday was on the loss of life, and on helping the affected businesses begin the process of recovering from the damage.

“The story today isn’t the town, or sales tax, or anything like that. Garden City, the town, is going to be fine,” said Eskew.

“The real story is the tragedy, and the businesses and the people who are affected by it. I’m just glad to see both businesses up and working today, even though they’ve been dealt a big setback. It will be a while, especially at the upholstery shop, but we’re concentrating on working with them to bounce back.”

Neither store has had to close because of the accident, but each has sustained significant damage. The Chevron station’s convenience store remains open for business, even though the wreck disabled the gas pumps’ control systems and gasoline — for the time being — won’t be available.

At C & U Upholstery, the damage was extensive. Sharon and JC Helms, the husband-and-wife duo who’ve operated the shop at its current location for the past 15 years, spent Wednesday assessing their losses.

As the car burned inside the building’s office space, the fire spread throughout the room, consuming computers, files, sewing machines and furniture. Smoke belched out of the low-ceilinged office and into the main warehouse, damaging a significant portion of its inventory and darkening the walls and ceiling with soot.

C & U makes and finishes custom furnishings for clients ranging from local homeowners to major corporations throughout the Unites States. Tuesday’s fire damage won’t shutter the four-employee business, said Sharon Helms. But it has left the business scrambling to complete ongoing projects, reestablish interrupted utility services, and source replacements for damaged materials.

“We’ll lose close to 90 percent of our inventory, because a lot of our stuff — like foam and fabric — it’s just going to absorb that smoke,” she explained. “If you were to put that in a piece of furniture, or sell it to customers who need to put it in furniture — well, you just don’t do that. They’re not going to buy it.”

The vehicle came to rest in an area typically occupied by people during business hours. “If this had happened in the daytime, it would have killed us,” said Helms, gesturing toward the burned-out office and the gaping hole where the SUV penetrated the exterior wall.

“I have my sewing machine in here with the secretary, and this is where we would have been,” Helms said. “It’s terrible, what happened. But it could have been much worse.”