The Langley vintage car collector who lost several dozen vehicles in a fire says he hasn’t lost any sleep hearing that some damage could’ve been prevented.
Garry Cassidy said it is hard to come to terms with the loss of more than 40 vehicles, but he isn’t concerned that a sprinkler system could’ve salvaged some of his prized possessions.
“They can’t be replaced. I mean you have a car that’s serial number 1, how do you replace that, hey? I can tell you when I walked in that shop, every day when I opened that door I said, ‘Hi kids.'”
He said it’s hard to deal with losing the cars, but he’s thankful for the hundreds of calls, texts and Facebook messages from loved ones.
He says he made his garage open to everyone, and he’ll miss letting people take a stroll through his collection.
“I said to everybody, ‘If you drove by the gate Saturday morning… if the gate was open and my pick-up was parked in front of the shop, come on in. If you have a father-in-law or somebody you want to bring.’ I just loved to look at people’s faces when they would walk in, and they’d look at these cars and… it was like, ‘Wow.'”
40 cars valued at about $3 Million were lost in the fire in October.
Cassidy says he probably won’t have a collection that large ever again.