Firefighters in Houston, Texas, were called to an enormous blaze at a parking lot in the city earlier this week. The fire started at the Creole On Yorktown apartment complex in Houston and has reportedly destroyed more than 30 cars that were parked there, including a classic Mercedes-Benz SL.
The fire started on Monday October 14, reports local news outlet Click2Houston, by an electrical short and sparks inside one car. By the time firefighters arrived on the scene around 4 a.m. Monday morning, had spread to more than 30 other cars parked in the garage.
Cars destroyed in the blaze include a Ford Taurus and a classic Mercedes-Benz SL, reports the Drive:
While it doesn’t sound like anyone was injured, local news outlets report that about 30 cars were lost in the blaze. Pictures posted on X and by various Houston-based news outlets show a sea of torched late-model sedans and SUVs as well as at least one classic—an R107-generation Mercedes-Benz SL.
According to Houston Fire Department, there is no indication that the fire as the result of arson or someone “intentionally” starting the fire. An investigation is continuing into the blaze, but at this time experts suggest that its most likely cause was an electrical issue with one of the cars in the garage.
As well as the Mercedes-Benz SL and the Ford Taurus that were caught up in the fire, Click2Houston spoke to the owner of a Mercedes-Benz A-Class that was parked in the garage. The car was reportedly the owner’s “dream car” and now they have been left wondering who will be liable to find a replacement, as the site reports:
“I asked the manager who is going to pay for all of this and she just told me there was nothing she can do about it,” Chanirae said.
Yousef Alkhatip is in the same boat.
His dream car, a Mercedes A-350 sedan was also incinerated in the fire, nothing left of it, and he had no insurance on the car.
“The apartment manager told me, do you have insurance on that car and I said no, I just bought it and she say I’m sorry to hear that and she was gone,” Yousef said.
Rather worryingly for the A-Class owner that was interviewed, insurance experts predict that the cost of replacing the damaged cars will come down to their individual owners, rather than the operator of the parking lot.
This isn’t the first fire to spread through a parking lot this year, in fact a defective battery in an electric vehicle recently sparked an explosion in a parking lot in South Korea and a catastrophic fire in the UK left more than 1,000 cars trapped in a parking lot at an airport.