Massive fire destroys hundreds of cars outside Burke County body shop

BURKE COUNTY, N.C. — A huge fire burned hundreds of cars outside a Burke County body shop on New Year’s Day.

Channel 9 learned the fire at Morrison’s Body Shop on East Meeting Street in Morganton destroyed 200 cars and took crews nearly eight hours to put out.

The shop’s owner, Calvin Morrison, told Channel 9 the cars, trucks and minivans were stacked four high and were supposed to be sent to a salvage yard.

He said he believes the fire started from homeless people who had camped near his business recently.

“I’ve run them off for two months and they come back. I was gonna crush next month and retire. I’m not gonna retire now. I’ll have to work 'til I die," he said.

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According to Morrison, he lost tens of thousands of dollars, but he’s thankful firefighters were able to stop the fire from doing more damage.

Firefighters told Channel 9 that two weeks ago, a second fire burned a homeless camp a few blocks from the shop.

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