More than 3,5000 rental cars was caught in a fire at the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fla.
The fire broke out on Friday night. Videos of the inferno were posted to Twitter over the weekend.
View from the Huey pic.twitter.com/arPbTPE6dN
— Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office (@CCSOFLSheriff) April 4, 2020
The cars were shown parked in a grassy area, which was reportedly used as an overflow parking area for rental cars at the airport. Witnesses reportedly heard multiple explosions as the fire began to spread around the lot.
By around 8 p.m. Friday night, two helicopters were at the scene of the fire carrying water drops to help slow the spread of the fire.
WATCH: Fire destroys more than 3,500 rental cars at rental car overflow area of Southwest Florida International Airport. https://t.co/C4k4g9wemr pic.twitter.com/d0RFKMunar
— CBS4 Miami (@CBSMiami) April 5, 2020
Air units from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office completed over 80 drops of fire retardent to over the fire, according to a statement from the department.
By the time emergency services were called to the fire, at around 5 p.m., around 20 vehicles had already burned up, according to Melinda Avni, Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee.
“By the time we had units on the scene, we had 100 cars [on fire]. We lost count after the hundreds,” Avni said.
@AmandaWills check out @UCBreakingNews for great footage on the RSW Southwest Florida International Airport massive rental car fire! @CNN @JMagsCNN #trending #breaking pic.twitter.com/V6y8GuSUQp
— Zero Fuel (@zerofuelcrew) April 5, 2020
The fire was contained on Saturday after firefighter crews from every Lee County fire department as well as several fire departments in the neighboring Collier and Charlotte counties responded and continued to fight the fire overnight Friday, WINK News reported.
The Lee County Port Authority confirmed the total number of cars damaged or destroyed at 3,500 in a statement provided to WINK. Another 3,800 cars were undamaged and relocated.
THOUSANDS of cars were damaged and 15 acres of forest were burned during last night’s incredible fire near Southwest Florida International airport 🔥#fire #smoke #florida #RSW #FortMyers pic.twitter.com/689KII182L
— Pat Wxotic (@pcavlin) April 4, 2020
In total, the fire burned across approximately 15 acres of area.
The Southwest Florida International Airport thanked the various police and fire responders for their handling of the fire in a Monday Facebook post.
