Fire crews in Miami Gardens raced to extinguish a fire reported outside a transmission shop that destroyed several vehicles on Wednesday morning, according to fire officials.
In the decades J&W Transmission has been open in Miami Gardens, Joe Rodriguez said he’s never seen anything like this.
Three cars, a van and a semi-truck were destroyed or damaged during the early morning fire.
“It looked like somebody, about five in the morning, they came up and torched these cars down,” Rodriguez said.
He said the flames and smoke were so high, it’s the tower operators at nearby Opa Locka Airport that alerted authorities to the blaze.
“Somebody got to cause it,” he said. “Like, see this one here got completely burned. I think they torched it with gas, and then they did those individuals because of the back part of the trucks. Nothing wrong with them.”
Not including an 18-wheeler that was damaged on the property next door, Rodriguez said they’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars in damages.
“About close to maybe $25,000-$30,000 plus,” he said.
Luckily, they are insured, but the hard part now is dealing with the owners of the cars.
“The owner of that car came last night to pick it up, but the car wouldn’t start,” he said about one of the damaged cars. “When he came this morning, he saw that. He freaked out.”
Fire officials have not said what caused the fire.
