Fire At Florida Airport Destroys More Than 3,500 Rental Cars

More than 3,500 rental cars have been destroyed by a massive blaze at an overflow lot at Southwest Florida International Airport, CNN reports.

It is understood that the inferno initially only involved 20 cars in the rental car overflow lot near the airport and that by the time authorities arrived on the scene, approximately 100 cars were engulfed in flames.

In their attempts to extinguish the blaze, at least 80 airdrops were made by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office’s aviation unit while the Florida Forestry Service and multiple fire departments offered ground assistance. Smoke could be seen up to 20 miles (32 km) away, The Weather Channel reports. It wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, approximately 18 hours after the fire started, that the forestry service deemed the blaze to be contained.

Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee, Melinda Avni, told CNN that the bush surrounding the overflow lot caught fire and aided in the quick spread of the blaze. Fortunately, there are no reports of injuries and no structures at the airport were damaged.

FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac added that the blaze did not impact air traffic or operations at the airport. Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.

We are also conducting water drops at this time. #FLForestService #wildfire #LeeCounty pic.twitter.com/wdSVWPMCu7

— FFS Caloosahatchee (@FFS_cafc) April 3, 2020

The Southwest Florida International Airport took to Facebook to thank those who extinguished the blaze.

“Thank you to the regional mutual aid fire departments and Division of Forestry for their heroic efforts in aiding RSW in last night’s fire. We appreciate their courage and willingness to help our Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting Department. Together they were able to keep all our passengers and airport visitors safe,” the airport wrote.

https://www.facebook.com/CCSOFLSheriff/posts/2993957237329628