Posted on 06/25/2025 7:32:49 AM PDT by V_TWIN
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than a month after a devastating fire in the hourly parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport, the BMW believed to have sparked that fire has been removed from the garage.
A spokesperson with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority confirmed that a photo shared with News4JAX showing a fire-damaged vehicle being lowered by crane onto a tow truck is the BMW in question.
About 1,200 cars were parked in the garage at the time the fire started.
Nearly 50 cars were damaged, and hundreds of them had to be left there initially until drivers were contacted and told they could safely retrieve their vehicles.
The BMW will now be removed to a secure area and investigated by ATF agents and JAA’s insurance company as they work to determine the cause of the fire.
JAA officials estimated earlier this month that it could cost at least $38 million to repair the damage and those repairs could take at least 18 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at news4jax.com ...
Can you imagine if the cause is someone replaced a fuel line and didn’t tighten it enough and/or used a non-oem fuel line? Who has the liability? Most people don’t carry auto liability coverage above $1 million.
It’s been brought to my attention there’s a muffler and exhaust pipe....maybe a hybrid?
Maybe a hybrid....but right now authorities are tight lipped about the whole investigation.
I had to laugh over the weekend.
Stayed at several state campgrounds in Northern California and they had pit toilets, but also several EV car chargers!
that straight rear post makes it look like an older model of some kind ...
Or the EV parked next to it?... :)
Exhaust pipe and muffler shows it an ICE unit, one of the collateral victims of the BMW.
BMW i4 has fake quad-looking tailpipes.
A few years ago when I parked at Boston Logan for a day trip I parked in the garage right at the terminal and paid the outrageous price to park there for ONE day.
When I was walking to the elevator right next to the door were all the chargers and spots for EVs. About 15-30’ away. Preferred parking like handicapped people get.
It really pissed me off. Then I remembered I was in MA.
I would suspect that the every airport parking garage has these preferred EV parking spots right near their elevators/stairwells.
Copied and pasted from Google’s AI overview - so take it for what it’s worth:
Frequency:
ICE vehicles: Experience fires at a higher rate, with approximately 1,530 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold.
EVs: Experience fires at a much lower rate, with around 25 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold.
Hybrids: Have a higher fire incident rate than both EVs and ICE vehicles.
The article did talk about how EV fires are harder to extinguish.
Has anyone considered that China might have a covert way of igniting these batteries?
Anyone is vaguely familiar with “The Art of War” would say that it is probably a requirement to be licensed by the CCP to manufacture EV batteries to have a back door to thermal overload.
“Leave the World Behind” on Netflix which Obama co-produced contains a warning about something similar.
Could have been a hybrid.
Last stats I saw had hybrids going en fuego at almost twice the rate of EVs...
I’d be worried about EV’s being allowed in those large ferries - like the one that crosses the Bay of Fundy - where you drive your car into the hold and then head upstairs for the trip. A fire there would be tragic.
Maybe not anymore. Start Farm recently yanked EV chargers from their parking decks and are relocating them to open air parking lots..
THIS is the real issue.
Yes, gasoline vapors are explosively flammable.
However, gasoline and diesel fuel fires can be extinguished with standard fire extinguishers, foam and WATER.
The real issue is that EV battery fires CAN NOT be extinguished by most fire departments. Especially rural volunteer fire departments. They may have foam. They MAY have a blanket to put over the vehicle. Some metro areas now have a water tank to immerse an EV n until it goes out. Which could take DAYS.
Meanwhile, as long as that fire is going it is causing other materials around it to potentially combust. Including IF they get hot enough the fire proof material surround structural steel/concrete.
Or easier to build. If you’re going to add stuff that eats a lot of electricity to an already existing parking garage where is the most highest capacity electrical wiring already? By the elevators.
That headline sux
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