Flames on Wednesday morning engulfed an barn near Erie in which about 70 vintage cars were being housed, destroying many of them.
The fire began about 9 a.m. on the 3100 block of Lowell Lane, according to Sara Farris, a spokeswoman for North Metro Fire Rescue.
A man restoring the cars told fire officials he heard an explosion in a mobile home adjacent to the barn. The explosion ignited the barn, quickly consuming the structure.
“We don’t know what caused that explosion,” Farris said. “We’re working to save some of the cars, but the majority of them were destroyed.”
Smoke from the blaze could be seen from several miles away.
“I’ve been collecting these for about 32 years, and it kind of makes you sick to see them all burned,” Leonard Johnson, who owned more than half the cars, told 7News.
Johnson said he and another man used the barn-turned-storage space to house their collections, which he estimated to be worth nearly $2 million.
He told 7News that most of the cars lost were vintage Cadillacs and the most expensive car lost was a 1958 Facel Vega worth about $275,000.
Crews were able to keep the fire from spreading to other structures on the property.
The fire was fully extinguished after more than 2½ hours.
The mobile home was unoccupied, and no one was injured in the incident.
