A huge fire started in All Bikes Sales' salvage yard in Rye, Arizona, consumed a whopping number of motorcycles. DealerNews reports that around 9,000 motorcycles, 5 adjacent mobile homes and a shed were also lost to the fire.
The fire, which burned for more than 12 hours brought massive firefighter forces to the site, but due to the nature of the material and explosions (most likely due to bike tanks or propane tanks) made a more decisive action impossible.
Started on Saturday night, the fire could only be extinguished the next day by noon, with 20 firefighters still on site putting out hotspots and making sure there were no more embers to cause flare-ups.
According to one of the residents evacuated from mobile home park adjacent to the All Bikes Sales property, the yard also contained extremely valuable motorcycles, such as "fully restored Knuckle, an Adler motorcycle, a bunch of early bikes,” Don Hopper said. “They were all mint, and then he (Ron Adler, the owner of the lot) ran his business selling parts. But those are all gone now.”
Incident Commander Dan Bramble said that "firefighters were able to save much of the antiques and collectibles along the front and side of the property where they could gain access and protect the stuff that hadn’t been burned," AzCentral reports.
The firefighters are investigating the cause of the fire.
