Owners dealing with melted cars after construction fire

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A fire so hot and bright, it lit up the morning sky.

That's what one student saw across the street from the construction site fire early Tuesday morning, June 19.

Danny, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, lives at the University Vista apartments nearby. He saw the fire and raced to get his car.

It was too late though, the fire was so hot and dangerous that he was not able to get to it in time.

His car was one of a dozen cars that had damage from the fire. According to Danny, the back bumper and his car cover melted from the intense heat.

This is his only car and right now and doesn't know what he will do next.

Nearly 30 people were forced out of their homes because of a two-alarm fire that also caused the closure of two major streets near the University of Arizona.

The Red Cross has opened a cooling center at Country Club Road and East Broadway Boulevard for residents who are unable to return to their homes.

According to a Tucson Fire Department spokesman, the first report of the fire came just after 2 a.m. and sixty firefighters were dispatched to the scene.

Heat and flames from the fire caused visible damage to the smaller of two cranes on the site, electrical lines and windows of nearby homes.