All parking facilities were still closed at JAX on Saturday; however, passengers were permitted to pick up their vehicles from the daily garage, daily lot, and economy lots.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Following a fire on Friday, numerous vehicles remain stranded in the hourly parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport.
Airport officials report no one was hurt in the fire and the cause is still under investigation.
According to an airport spokesperson, the hourly garage will remain closed for an indefinite period as inspections are conducted. This situation is affecting the availability of other parking areas at the airport.
Without access to the 1,200 spaces in the hourly garage, the daily garage, daily surface lot and economy lots spent the entire day Saturday at capacity.
Arriving passengers were allowed to retrieve their cars. One passenger parked in the daily garage allowed a First Coast News crew to follow along when she got a first look at her car since the fire.
“My flight was at 12:30, but it kept getting delayed,” said Rachel Mulvaney while on the way to get her car. “So, I had to stay at basically a motel.”
Mulvaney finally made it back to Jacksonville – a day after she planned.
Once her plane touched down, she had to wonder if her car was OK after she learned about a fire burning through part of the hourly parking garage.
“My mom told me about it,” said Mulvaney. “She was freaking out, as mothers do. I’m like, ‘Eh, it’ll probably be fine.”
When a shuttle dropped her off at the garage, she found out the elevators weren’t working – and she parked on the roof.
“That is completely unfair,” said Mulvaney while walking up the ramp, pulling her suitcase.
The silver lining after climbing all the way to the top was that Mulvaney’s car was just fine.
“Just a little dirty,” said Mulvaney.
Mulvaney wasn’t the only one who let out a sigh of relief after seeing their car for the first time since the fire.
“It just reeks of smoke and there’s a lot of soot on the outside, but for the most part, no damages to my car,” said Sixt Rental Agent Sheika Thomas.
Thomas also parked in the daily garage for her job at Sixt.
She says that although her car was fine, the same can’t be said about some of the agency’s rental cars, which were parked in the hourly garage where the fire broke out.
“We did have to move some cars around in the garage,” said Thomas. “We got approval for that today, so that’s good, but there is damage to some of the cars.”
Thomas says they aren’t taking walk-ups at the moment, but Sixt is shuttling folks with reserved rental cars off-site to pick them up.
“Everything has been smooth,” said Thomas. “I don’t know what they did overnight, but they made it smooth for when I came in this morning.”
An airport spokesperson says there isn’t a timeline for when they’ll be able to let people into the hourly garage, but the Jacksonville Aviation Authority released the following statement on Sunday:
“The Hourly Garage remains closed. Officials have established a collapse zone. At this time only authorized personnel are able to access the garage. All other individuals are prohibited from entering this area to ensure their safety. Crews are working to establish safe areas of the garage where cars may be removed. We believe certain areas will be deemed safe and cleared later this week.”
