Classic Car Collection Destroyed By Barn Collapsing In Storm Eunice
A classic car collector has described the moment Storm Eunice destroyed the barn where he keeps his prized motors - causing hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Just hours earlier, Ewen Sergison, 46, had been on board a terrifying flight which struggled to land at Gatwick Airport. As you may have already guessed, things didn't get any better for him.
The racing engineer and high speed driving instructor was on his way back into the country when Storm Eunice hit the UK on Friday 18 February.
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Despite driving Formula One cars for a living, Mr Sergison said he'd 'never been so scared' in his life, adding: "I'm not religious but even I started praying for us to reach the ground safely."
After landing, he made his way to Darlton, Nottinghamshire, where his rural property houses valuable racing cars which are used in international events.
Members of his staff were still on-site working as the wind picked up, which eventually led to complete disaster for Mr Sergison and his team.
Mr Sergison said: "We'd only been home for around half an hour. We got the dogs in the house and I said to my partner that I thought a tile was going to come off.
"Straight away one did and then the whole courtyard just filled with dust. The building's roof and walls came down."
The structure came down and landed on a number of his cars - including an Aston Martin Vantage and a 1968 Mini Marcos which was given to him by his late mother when he was 14.
Two cars belonging to some of his customers were also in the barn, but escaped relatively undamaged.
Mr Sergison said his main priority was making sure everyone was safe when the barn came crashing down.
He went on to add: "My partner was absolutely hysterical. My first thought was 'is there any members of staff in the building?'
"So when I saw there wasn't and everyone was alright, it was a massive relief. I had customers cars in there as well as my own - one of them is worth more than £350,000. Thankfully there was only minor damage to
that one.
"Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage has been done. It's pretty devastating."
Work is now ongoing at the farm to try to clear the damage and ensure the cars aren't damaged further.
Topics: UK News
Rebecca Shepherd