What was originally reported as a structure fire at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Wednesday turned out to be a massive, 40-foot sink hole that swallowed eight cars, said executive director Wendell Strode.

Some time before 5:30 a.m. the sink hole started to form, authorities believe and by 5:39 a.m. power in the museum went off and police were called, he said.

When they got to the museum, emergency personnel discovered a 40-foot sink hole between 25 and 30 feet deep, Strode said. “It’s pretty significant,” he said.

Eight cars dropped into the hole, five of which were owned by the museum and the other three by General Motors.

Employees at the museum are still working on a list of cars involved in the incident, which occurred inside the facility’s iconic spire called the Sky Dome, Strode said.

Emergency personnel allowed museum staff to remove only one car, the only surviving and irreplaceable 1983 Corvette which was not one of the eight in the sink hole, he said.

Engineers are being called in to assess the situation.

“Before we do anything, like remove the other cars, we want that assessment so we know if there’s been any structural damage to the Sky Dome,” Strode said.

The museum will be open Wednesday but the Sky Dome will be off limits, he said.

“We’ll try to get back to business as usual as soon as we can and keep moving forward,” he said.

A monetary estimate of damage done to the museum and the vehicles involved had not been determined early Wednesday.

1993 ZR-1 Spyder on loan from General Motors

• 2009 ZR1 “Blue Devil” on loan from General Motors

The other six vehicles were owned by the National Corvette Museum including:

• 1962 Black Corvette

• 1984 PPG Pace Car

• 1992 White 1 Millionth Corvette

• 1993 Ruby Red 40th Anniversary Corvette

• 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette

• 2009 White 1.5 Millionth Corvette