MIAMI (WSVN) - Four cars have been damaged after a fire broke out at a Miami car dealership.
The fire broke out at Magic City Auto Dealership, along Southwest Eighth Street and 31st Court, at around 5:30 a.m., Tuesday.
“It sucks to come to work and for something like this to happen,” said Felipe Pereira, who works at the dealership.
Miami Fire Rescue shared photos showing them cutting through the property’s gate and battling the intense flames.
“Fire crews had to force entry into the property by cutting the locks, because at the time of night it was, the business was closed and they were able to get in, extinguish the fire within, I’d say, about 15 minutes,” said Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez.
Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the blaze.
There were about 30 cars on the lot. Of the four cars damaged, three were charred.
“That’s a 2017 Chevy Cruise. That’s a 2018 Honda Civic, and I’m trying to figure out what that one is, I can’t really tell because it’s so destroyed. You can’t even tell the make of the car,” said Pereira.
“Scary. I thought it was a dream,” said owner Luis Olivares. “I got 40 missed calls from the police saying, ‘Hey, come to your dealership. You have a fire going on.’ I thought it was somebody that had crashed in, but I guess not. We’re gonna have to do some investigation to see what happened.”
“We’re working with Miami PD as well,” said Sanchez. “They’re gonna review surveillance and determine if it was arson, if it was accidental, but for right now we’re still investigating, and we’ll determine that later at some point.”
After reviewing surveillance video with police, Olivares said he is waiting for police to determine whether this was an accident or intentionally set.
“Definitely saw somebody,” he said. “It slows us down, definitely, but think we’ll get ahead. We’ll push forward and clean this up and keep selling.”
Olivares said he is confident authorities will find out why the blaze sparked.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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