More than 50 firefighters and 14 trucks battled a blaze at a car dealership in Gateshead on Sunday night.
Firefighters responded to the incident at the Newcastle MG dealership on Oakdale Road just after 7.30pm, with a number of nearby residents calling Triple-0 after seeing black smoke and flames coming from the single level commercial building.
The fire was contained by 9pm, but the building suffered significant damage.
Hunter man Shaun Spies was nearby as the scene unfolded and said "it was pretty hectic".
"There was a lot of thick smoke and flames leaping about 20 feet in the air," he said.
Firefighter Jeremy Tout said about 30 per cent of the building had been affected by the fire but early indications were no surrounding businesses had been impacted.
"It was pretty big," he said.
Multiple crews from fire stations across the Hunter and Newcastle regions attended the scene, along with ambulance and police officers.
Luckily no one was injured in the blaze and investigators will now try to identify the cause of the fire.
A Newcastle MG spokeswoman said the business would remain open for sales and service, despite the events of Sunday night.
"It is business as usual and we are still operating," she said.
"We haven't been able to access the site yet as the fire is still under investigation at this stage, but there were no cars in that area of the building.
"We just want to thank the fire fighters and police for everything that they did."
