Florida airport suspends operations after car fire in parking garage, according to officials
A fire erupted from a parking lot at Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), leading to a complete shutdown of the airport.
The airport of Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) in Florida was shut down due to a fire caught in a parking garage on Friday morning. According to officials, the fire caused the complete shutdown of the airport.
Flights arriving and departing at Jacksonville International Airport were temporarily suspended while firefighters worked to control the blaze in an hourly parking garage close to the terminal, said airport spokesperson Greg Willis.
Florida airport was closed due to fire in a parking garage
Videos shared on social media showed thick black smoke rising from the garage as emergency crews worked to control the blaze. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office blocked all inbound and outbound road access to the airport.
According to FlightRadar X, formerly Twitter, account, Jacksonville remains closed to passenger flights through at least 8 p.m. local time. Jacksonville's First Coast News reported that multiple vehicles caught fire on the third level of the garage.
At the time of the fire, the garage was reportedly 95 percent full, according to the airport's website cited by the previous source. When contacted, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) directed Newsweek to seek comments from the Jacksonville airport.
The airport posted, "Due to a fire in the Hourly Garage, the airport is currently closed. JFRD is on-site working the issue. JSO has blocked inbound and outbound road access to the airport. Additional details will be forthcoming soon."
Firefighters worked to extinguish flames engulfing the Jacksonville International Airport parking garage. Photo: Yahoo News
Around 3 p.m. on Friday, the airport updated on X, “The Hourly Garage is still closed, but other parking facilities (Daily Garage, Daily Surface Lot and Economy Lots) are accessible. Airport shuttle buses will transport passengers to their vehicles. The pick-up location is the pre-arranged/premier parking lot on the lower level of Baggage Claim.”
No injuries were reported. Officials didn't immediately know how badly the parking structure was damaged, but they estimated that dozens of vehicles were affected.
Officials didn't immediately say what caused the fire.
