Classic cars burn in Warsaw, IN

Warsaw Fire Destroys Apartments, $1 Million in Antiques by Troy Kehoe ( snipped-for-privacy@wsbt.com) (WSBT) Three families are without a home after their apartments inside a converted storage barn just South of Warsaw burned to the ground early Sunday. Fire crews from 4 departments struggled for more than 4 hours to contain the fire, but say they were fighting a losing battle.

Warsaw Assistant Fire Chief Rob Barker says his crews knew they would need help right off the bat.

"When they turned the corner down the road," he says. "They could see the glow in the sky. It looked like the northern lights in the ice storm."

And that ice only made things worse: one fire engine slid off the road and into a ditch. Then winds picked up and fanned the flames. Crews also had to rotate 6 tanker trucks on a 4 mile route to the nearest water source because a nearby fire hydrant wasn't working.

Firefighters also barged into a burning apartment, searching for a woman neighbors said was trapped inside.

They found no one, but took an elderly woman to the hospital for smoke inhalation and minor burns around her face. Fire crews say the bottled oxygen she was using exploded inside the building after she'd escaped.

A Warsaw firefighter was also sent to the hospital slipping on some ice.

Both are expected to make a full recovery.

Nothing will be recovered though from the building's storage area, where owners Art and Cookie Gakstatter kept nearly 30 antique cars and boats they've collected over the last 40 years, including a 1949 Studebaker Truck, a Rolls Royce, and a jet powered boat.

They estimate the collection's appraisal at nearly $1 million, but say the items were about much more than money.

They're one of a kind! You can't buy them!" says Art. "And they're destroyed. "I'm just sick. Worse than sick. You hope it's a nightmare and you wake up."

Still, even though Art's dreams now lay in ruins, there is comfort in one thing:

"At the end of the day, everybody went home," he says.

The building's other tenants weren't hurt, and are being cared for by the Kosciusko County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Fire Investigators aren't sure what caused the fire yet, but say they believe it was an accident.

FYI: The Gakstatters are not listed among active SDC members in the

2006 Roster. BP