This is interesting timing for a fire - as the Vehicle (Crime) Act was enacted just a year before this fire - the act made it comulsory for all cars that have been or will be disposed of to a salvage sight to be recorded in the legal format - to crack down on stolen vehicles that were worth more for parts than to sell on - fire means these records could not be completed on the current stock in the yard.
PLEASE NOTE: I am not saying this is the case - just an interesting issue.
I remember my dad driving me to Halfway, and see this car plac thing. I was at St Georges School at he time, I think. just past it was a caravan site and then a petrol station. im not surprised if there was a fire there, i seems to remember another fire there once, something to do with tyres. I think the monkeys did a runner after this!