15-Acre Brush Fire Near Florida Airport Destroys More Than 3,500 Rental Cars
Over 3,500 rental cars were destroyed on Friday (Apr 3) after a 15-acre brush fire erupted near Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) in Fort Myers around 5 p.m. local time.
Initially, only 20 vehicles had caught fire on the grassy rental car overflow area, but as the fire continued to blaze on for hours, the total shot up to 3,516, leaving 3,850 undamaged.
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By 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, nearly 18 hours after it first began, the fire had finally been put out. The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office’s aviation unit stated that it took at least 80 airdrops of water to kill it. Furthermore, the State Fire Marshal claims the cause of the fire is still under review.
Fortunately, the blaze included zero injuries and had zero impact on air traffic and operations at the airport, per FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac.
Following the fire’s extinguishing, the airport released a statement that read, “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.”