MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - A parking garage at Miami International Airport has reopened after, officials said, a fire broke out and damaged 12 vehicles.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews responded to the Flamingo Parking Garage, just after 11:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, after responding to reports of a vehicle fire.
When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke and multiple cars engulfed in flames.
Video provided by MDFR captured firefighters battling the fierce flames.
Witness Mariela Bello described the fiery scene.
“The smoke is coming out, so I can’t seen anything, completely dark, no lights,” she said.
7Skyforce captured plumes of smoke coming from the garage, an alarming sight as the blaze, which sparked on the ramp between the first and second floors, damaged a dozen vehicles.
“Our units arrived to find multiple vehicles that were on fire on the second floor parking level,” said MDFR Chief Rogelio Vandamas. “While they were quickly able to extinguish the four vehicles, unfortunately there was damage to approximately another eight vehicles.”
Bello was picking up her mother from the airport at the time. She said she walked back into the garage as the fire was happening.
“The smoke was coming through the third floor, so I had to go back to the third,” she said.
Firefighters extinguished the fire, brought it under control, and worked to clear lingering smoke.
Thankfully, no one was injured.
Officials said none of the vehicles involved were electric. They inspected the garage for potential structural damage as a precaution.
“Since the parking garage is made out of concrete, the heat does spall the concrete, so we did have a little bit of spalling to the concrete, which department engineers are looking at to determine what their best course of action is for the parking garage at this time,” said Vandamas.
The parking garage is back open, except for the ramp where the fire occurred and the ramps directly below and above it.
The MIA Mover train between the airport and the rental car center is back up and running.
Because there have to be some repairs made to the ramps inside the garage, airport officials said, an additional 40 parked vehicles had to be moved out of the way. They will be putting up signs so anyone returning to MIA knows what is going on and is able to retrieve their car.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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