GLENBURN – Black smoke from a fire in Glenburn could be seen Thursday morning billowing into the sky from locations all over Bangor, Levant and Hermon.

Property owner Sonny Fournier was working on a 1976 Cadillac and tried to start it around 10:30 a.m., but the car backfired and caught the garage on fire, he said.

A second garage also was destroyed in the blaze, but a nearby barn was saved, according to Glenburn Fire Lt. Eric Strout.

Strout said the cause of the fire was undetermined as far as fire officials were concerned, and that the State Fire Marshal’s Office likely would be called to investigate.

“From what we could see, there’s a lot of antique vehicles in there,” Strout said.

Fire crews were expected to spend a few more hours at the scene making sure that the flames were out. Paint cans, other accelerants, and the cars themselves created small explosions while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, but no one was injured.

There were numerous antique cars on site – about $50,000 worth, according to Fournier.

In addition to the ’76 Cadillac, Fournier had a 1936 Plymouth Coup, a 1950 Chevrolet with a Corvette motor, a couple of 1941 automobiles, and several others.

“You can replace them, you can’t replace lives,” Fournier said.

He is from Bangor and no one lives at the property at 3143 Union St.

Although thick smoke could be seen from miles away, fire crews had a difficult time finding the property because it sits back about 300 feet from the road.

Getting water to the site wasn’t an issue because the Maine Air National Guard was called in and provided a tanker truck, Strout said.

Mutual aid crews were called in from surrounding towns to assist Glenburn in fighting the fire and to provide coverage for other stations that reported to the scene, including Hudson, Hermon, Levant, Kenduskeag, Etna, and Carmel. G&H and Capital Ambulance set up an area at the site for firefighters to get water and cool off.

“It’s a pretty warm day for late September,” Strout said.