Post-Apocalyptic Car Dealership, England

This burnt out car dealership in England looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. With that in mind, the name Post-Apocalyptic Car Dealership seems quite fitting! Certainly the twisted wreckages and orange oxidised metal has a certain Mad Max feeling to it. The place looks like it would fit a desert wasteland dystopia.

It is estimated that around 150 cars were inside when the fire broke out. The roof is collapsed, twisted and compromised by the heat. Temperatures got so high that glass windows melted; there are pools and piles of the now solidified glass.

I visited the Post-Apocalyptic Car Dealership in 2020. It had been on my radar for a while, but I had never quite got round to visiting. Apparently just in time. A few months later the location was cleared and the building demolished.

A mysterious blaze and the birth of the Post-Apocalyptic Car Dealership

The fire broke out at the car dealership around 9pm on a Friday night. Quickly, the flames spread and the fire brigade were called. At the peak of the blaze, there would have been 100 firefighters here battling the fire. This was an unpredictable fire. Fuel tanks and other flammable items exploded as temperatures inside rose. The extreme temperatures and explosions weakened the steel roof girders, and they began to buckle. Half of the roof gave way, falling in a contorted heap onto the flaming cars below.

The fire crews evacuated neighbouring houses as the smoke spread. There were fears of toxic chemicals in the smoke, as well as the possibility for the fire to break their containment attempts.

Eventually, after some hours the fire was under control. Unfortunately, everything in the huge warehouse had been totally destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of inventory had literally gone up in smoke. Investigations later determined that this was in fact an arson attack. The appeals for witnesses found no answers. Those guilty were never discovered. The fire at the car dealership remains a mystery.