Seriously damaged vehicles sit on the third deck of the hourly parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport, where a fire broke out last month. | Jacksonville Aviation Authority
Published on June 13, 2025 at 11:20 am
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
About 20 vehicles were carefully moved Thursday off the top deck of the fire-ravaged parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport.
A crane was used to move the vehicles to an undamaged part of the garage’s fourth floor, almost a month after flames torched part of the third and fourth floors.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Cars in less-damaged sections of the garage were returned to owners weeks ago.
The fire swept through the hourly parking garage the afternoon of May 16, apparently starting in one vehicle on the third floor just before noon, then leaving about 50 vehicles trapped there and on the deck above.
Crews have removed solar panels from the front of the garage to lessen weight on damaged parts of the top deck. Now, with the first group of vehicles “very safely and methodically” moved off part of the top deck on Thursday, efforts to remove more damaged ones could begin soon, airport authority spokesperson Michael Stewart said.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
There is no timeline for removal of the most heavily damaged vehicles on the third floor, where the fire started. Those not near the fire’s origin could be pulled out after exterior railings are removed, Stewart said.
None of that can be done until structural engineers can check on the integrity of the third floor and decking above it. Then investigators can focus on what Stewart calls “ground zero” — the BMW that was the apparent source of the blaze and the damaged vehicles around it.
