KNIGHTDALE — Firefighters worked five hours yesterday to bring a blaze under control that left a garage used for storing antique cars in cinders.

Eastern Wake fire Chief George Gupton said the garage was the bottom half of a 5,000-square-foot building at 409 Mailman Road that caught fire Monday afternoon and spread to about two and a half acres of woods around it.

Gupton said two antique cars and two other vehicles inside the building were destroyed.

“We got numerous calls on it,” said Gupton. “They said you could see it as far as Wake Forest.”

The chief said firefighters from Wendell, New Hope and Garner fire departments helped Eastern Wake firefighters battle the blaze. Firefighters arrived around 5:09 p.m. Monday and left around 3 a.m. today.

“It was a mess of a fire,” said Gupton. “The structure was fully involved. The second floor had already fallen in and the first floor was falling in.”

A nearby rental house was not damaged. The garage and the rental house sit in the woods about 50 feet from Mailman Road just south of Knightdale.

Gupton said the iron gate at the entrance of the property was locked and that to get the gate open, firefighters used a Hurst tool, a piece of equipment used to cut people out of wrecked vehicles.

Gupton said the property was for sale. He said the building was valued at $350,000 and its contents, $150,000.

“It’s very, very distressing,” said Ann Caudle, the owner.

Caudle, who lives in Melbourne, Florida, said she rented the property in December.

“It was my husband’s house,” she said. “He stored cars in it. He loved old cars.”

But Caudle said when she last saw the garage building in November, it was empty.

Wake County Deputy Fire Marshal David Zoltoski said the fire was under investigation, but did not appear to be suspicious.

“We haven’t determined the cause,” said Zoltoski. “It will be under investigation until we determine the definitive cause of the fire.”

Zoltoski said fire investigators are now analyzing what’s left of the electrical system. He said an electrical inspector from Progress Energy is working with crews from the Wake County Public Safety Fire and Emergency Management Department.