Jacksonville airport parking garage fire cancels flights, closes parking facilities

Yahoo

17-05-2025

Ignited by a still-unknown source, fire swept through the hourly parking garage of Jacksonville International Airport on May 16, temporarily shutting down the Northside airport and leaving behind dozens of burned-out vehicles, a structurally-damaged building and jumbled plans for thousands of travelers.
City and airport officials said no serious injuries resulted from the fire, which ignited at mid-day.
The fire abruptly turned plans upside down for travelers when an hours-long closure of the airport canceled some incoming and departing flights and shut down roads leading to and from the terminal. Passengers who had just arrived on flights into Jacksonville were forced to make alternative travel arrangements when they couldn't get access to rental cars or their own cars in airport parking facilities, or when their friends and families were unable to get to the airport for curbside pickup.
Officials said the fire, which damaged an estimated 50 cars, was so intense that it triggered a partial collapse of the hourly parking garage's second and third floors, forcing the indefinite closure of the structure to incoming and exiting vehicles as well as pedestrians as they worked to assess the full damage.
On May 17, the day after the fire, the airport's daily garage and daily surface lot were also closed to incoming vehicles, officials said. But travelers whose cars were already parked in those facilities were able to access their vehicles and exit the airport.
The closure of the hourly parking garage and its 1,200 parking spaces comes as the airport's parking facilities closest to the terminal regularly reach capacity — even before the start of the busy summer travel season. And with the temporary closure of airport lots near the damaged garage, airport parking had already reached capacity — even at the outlying Economy Parking lots — by mid-morning May 17.
Flight disruptions continued the day after the fire, leading to at least a half-dozen cancellations of departing flights from the airport.
Cassy LaRussa and Nina Knappenberger, who had flown to Jacksonville to join family members for a nephew's graduation ceremony at Creekside High School, were minutes away from getting into a rental car in the hourly parking garage when smoke began to fill the air.
"We were trying to get a car and we had the keys, and then they were yelling at us to evacuate and we had to run across to the terminal," LaRussa said.
"There was a lot of smoke but it looked like it was from the other garage," Knappenberger said. "And then they came over and said it was right above us and we had to get out now. And you could see the flames when we came out of the parking garage."
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department chief Keith Powers said the two-alarm fire required the use of seven engines, three crash trucks, five ladders and three tankers. The fire department received word of billowing smoke from the building shortly after 12 p.m., and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office closed roads leading to and from the airport as fire crews battled the blaze.
The closure resulted in cars lining up for miles on the grassy shoulders of the roads leading to the airport because drivers couldn't go any further. On the other side of the road closures, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority brought in buses near the cell phone waiting lot so people could step into the buses for cool air and a break from the hot weather.
Ben and Emma Nelson learned about the fire when they arrived at the airport and found the road blocked by the Sheriff's Office.
They had been determined to avoid a repeat of an experience they had last year when they flew out of Jacksonville after a vacation and had trouble finding parking space to return their rental car. They headed extra early to the airport after wrapping up a vacation in St. Augustine.
"I think our first thought was, 'Not again," Ben Nelson said.
"It was like you've got to be joking — another thing in Jacksonville," Emma Nelson said. "But what can you do? You've got to just roll with the inconvenience."
Even after Yankee Clipper Drive, the main road to the airport, reopened at about 5:30 p.m. for drivers to access the terminals, travelers were checking their cell phones to find out whether they still could fly out of Jacksonville or make arrangements for an overnight stay.
Michael Stewart, director of external affairs for the airport, said at the May 16 media briefing the airport had not yet calculated the number of flights that were delayed, canceled or diverted due to the closure.
Powers said airport video indicated that the fire began in one vehicle on the second floor of the garage and damaged an estimated 50 other cars, burning so intensely that the heat triggered a partial collapse of the garage's second and third floors. A secondary collapse followed about 30 minutes later, and the fire shut down all airport activity for several hours until its evening reopening.
As of 4 p.m. that afternoon, Mayor Donna Deegan said at a media briefing that the fire was contained but not yet fully extinguished. Because of the structural damage to the garage, Deegan said that crews had deployed a drone in an effort to confirm that no people were trapped inside the building.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Also unclear is the timetable for removing vehicles from the damaged building. Powers compared the process to the partial collapse of the Ascension St. Vincent's Riverside parking garage in September 2023. In that case, crews worked through much of the autumn to remove vehicles from that garage using a crane and robotic technology.
"I would not expect it to be a short period of time," Powers said.
Powers said the garage's most recent inspection was in October 2024.
Stewart urged travelers to check with airlines about the status of flights, and recommended that they consider the use of rideshare services to compensate for the loss of parking options.
In a social media post, the airport advised that parking would remain "extremely constrained for the foreseeable future."
JIA has yet to specify the number of cars remaining in the garage. However, the airport's online parking tracker on the afternoon of the fire recorded 90 percent occupancy for the 1,200-space garage, which if accurate, would amount to about 1,080 vehicles inside the structure. The garage had been busy all day: The airport had announced that the hourly garage was "nearing capacity" at 9:52 a.m. May 16, slightly more than two hours before the fire.
The airport announced on the night of May 16 that officials were beginning work on a web page to update people whose vehicles were parked in the hourly garage.
Also, the airport set up temporary areas for rental car returns. These are on Staggerwing Court for Alamo, Enterprise and National; on Rental Car Lane for Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz and Thrifty; and at the Aviation Authority administrative office at 14201 Pecan Park Road for Sixt.
Teresa Stepzinski and Gary T. Mills of the Times-Union contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Massive fire wreaks havoc on Jacksonville airport flights, parking