Large Fleet Of Rental Cars Burn In Grassy South Florida Field

An estimated 3500 rental cars burned in a grassy south Florida field over the weekend. Many others were saved by quick acting firefighters. While no apparent cause for the blaze was listed, chances are the cars HOT Catalytic Converters set the fire coming in contact with the dry grass. 😥

According to thedrive.com flames tore through an overflow parking area near the Southwest Florida International Airport on Friday, destroying thousands of rental cars and creating a huge spectacle in the process. Witnesses say they saw and heard multiple small explosions and flames jumping high into the air with showers of sparks. The drama unfolded in broad daylight and was enough to draw people out of their homes to gawk as plumes of black smoke could be seen up to 20 miles away.

In all, over 3,500 cars were either damaged or destroyed in the fire, according to News-Press. Another 3,850 were spared from the flames, but the whole scene looked like something from an apocalyptic action movie. Luckily for the airport, the lot where the cars were parked is far enough from the terminals that no other damage was reported. The facility’s access road was closed, so the few passengers that were traveling on Friday had to be shuttled in from the parking areas.

Southwest Florida International Airport is fully functional and the inbound lanes of Terminal Access Road reopened at 11 p.m. Friday, according to Vicki Moreland, communications director for the airport. The fire was in an area where extra rental cars are parked due to covid-19.