When crews arrived, they say they found 15-20 “GoCars” on fire. NBC 7’s Jeanette Quezada reports.
The owner of GoCars in San Diego's Old Town neighborhood said a fire on Thursday night destroyed dozens of his miniature road-ready vehicles.
The fire at GoCar Tours, which is located a little off Congress Street at 3918 Mason St., was reported at around 9:20 p.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Chris Boone, who also owns GoCar Las Vegas, said he was en route to Nevada to pick up GoCars and also planned on bringing more of the vehicles down from a San Francisco location.
Boone said on Friday that the Old Town location had about 33 GoCars on site on Thursday night, and 28 of them were destroyed. The remainder were parked on the other side of the lot, he added.
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Six of the burned Go Cars were powered by lithium-ion batteries — Boone said he was trying to go green with his fleet.
“Some of the [GoCars] that were on fire are lithium-ion battery charging karts, so that’s the cause of the fire at this point – it’s due to the overcharging of the lithium-ion batteries," SDFD Battalion Chief Chad Willenberg told NBC 7 on Thursday night.
Fire officials said the GoCar Tours property sustained minimal damage. Although nearby structures were initially threatened, none of those buildings were damaged. No injuries were reported, according to SDFD.
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Willenberg said a hazmat team would help with the batteries damaged by fire.
Video from the scene showed multiple fire trucks, with Congress Street was blocked off between Mason Street and Taylor Street.
Boone said that he is preliminarily estimating the damages at $350,000, adding that while the cars are fully insured for liability and the building is insured, the GoCars themselves are not insured for fire outside of the building, so he was not sure insurance will cover the losses.
For now, Boone said the San Diego business, which has been open since 2005, is not taking any reservations, but he is trying to take care of customers who are already booked by bringing in vehicles from his other sites.
NBC 7's Dana Williams contributed reporting to this story — Ed.
