posted 11-19-2015 10:43 AM                  

David Conwill on Nov 18th, 2015 at 2pm

Photos by Jim Noelker/WHIO Staff, courtesy WHIO.

We awoke this morning to the news that a facility in Harrison Township, Ohio, near Dayton, belonging to America’s Packard Museum was lost to fire overnight along with an unknown number of classic cars contained inside.

“We never could count. We just knew there’s a ton of cars in that building,” Harrison Twp. Fire Battalion Chief Darrin Wiseman told reporters from WHIO.

America’s Packard Museum is not to be confused with the National Packard Museum, which is located in Warren, Ohio, the birthplace of Packard Motor Car Company.

America’s Packard Museum operates from a restored Packard dealership in the city of Dayton. It appears that the Harrison Township facility, approximately five miles north of the museum itself, may have been used for restoration of display vehicles. The museum website also indicates that it has “one of the largest collections [of Packard parts] anywhere” which it offers for sale.

Two out of the three buildings involved in the fire were totally consumed, with fire officials indicating that the museum-owned facility suffered most of the damage. Weak water pressure on the dead-end street and high winds hampered firefighting efforts.

According to WHIO, as of 8:45 pm Tuesday, the scene was still too hot to determine a cause of the fire, though initial reports indicate it originated in an adjoining building used to store roofing materials. Until a cause of the fire can be established, investigators cannot make a damage estimate. More details are expected today when investigators can sift through the debris, although as of 6:00 a.m. fire crews were back on the scene extinguishing hot spots.

Hemmings reached out to America’s Packard Museum, but museum representatives were unable to comment until they have finished working with the fire marshal. They promised to update us once more details were available.

UPDATE (19.November 2015): Investigation into the origins and extent of the fire is still ongoing, but it appears some vehicles were saved from the fire. Reports are that the fire was a result of human activity in an unsecured portion of the warehouse, possibly vandalism.