I have wanted to write about this fire since I first learned about it, but there wasn't much information to go on.
On May 16th, X was suddenly filled with the wildest videos of people who had driven to the upper deck of Jacksonville International Airport in Jacksonville, FL, and been met by this scene across from the terminal.
Be interesting to see what started this fire in the parking garage at Jacksonville, FL airport pic.twitter.com/3EVglICzD8
— techman (@techman01) May 16, 2025
The fire got a lot worse as it spread between vehicles, and they shut flights down for several hours as well.
The Jville Fire Department and the auxiliaries called in to help finally got the sucker out, but not before almost 50 cars were torched and there were several deck collapses, stranding cars that hadn't been burned in the blaze.
According to an airport spokesman a couple of weeks post-fire, there were still 60 or so cars trapped in the structure even then, but the entire thing was so unstable, they still had no idea how they were going to get to any of them and if any of them coul be gotten out.
That's if they were worth saving, as no one had been able to check on their condition yet.
Two weeks after a massive fire tore through a parking garage at Jacksonville International Airport, about 60 vehicles remain trapped on the most seriously damaged floors.
The vehicles sit on the the third and fourth floors of the garage as an investigation of the fire continues. Airport officials continue to shore up lower decks in preparation for safely removing vehicles still on its upper decks.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.Airport authority spokesperson Michael Stewart said the combined weight of vehicles on the top floor (the fourth) is adding to the instability of the structure. No one can go near them or the 18 still inaccessible on the third floor, which slows part of the investigation, he said.
“The last thing we want to do is for someone to go in there, and a piece of concrete hits somebody whether it is a car owner or us,” Stewart said. “So no, I couldn’t tell you even an estimate on when the third floor shoring will be complete.”
Meanwhile, the attorney whose law firm represents 20 to 25 clients affected by the fire said he has warned some of them that their vehicles could be a lost cause.
Of course, law firms are already involved, as there are people who are sitting without their vehicles, whether they live in Jacksonville or elsewhere, who are in limbo.
The city has determined it going to cost upwards of $38M to replace the garage and take a good 18 months at least. As it was the airport's hourly garage, there's also an issue of lost revenue, which by the end of June was toting up to over $3.5M.
...The Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) board members this month reviewed the situation at the hourly parking garage just east at the entrance to JIA concourses and have concluded it will take about $38 million to fix the structure.
The blaze engulfed much of the multistory parking structure on May 16 and torched about 50 vehicles before Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department personnel could bring the intense blaze under control. The fire was so powerful, it damaged the concrete structure on several floors.
...That parking garage was designated for hourly parking, and officials said the airport lost substantial revenue while the facility has been closed for the past month. That lost revenue amounts to more than $3.5 million.
Through it all, the one question that has been asked is 'what started the fire?' The rumor mill immediately flew into overdrive, suggesting that a Tesla had been involved, but that was quickly debunked by the airport and fire authorities. No, it wasn't a Tesla.
NEWS: Following rampant speculation that the Friday afternoon fire inside the hourly garage at Jacksonville International Airport was started by a @Tesla, officials with the Jacksonville Aviation Authority have confirmed that was not the case.
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 19, 2025
Officials are exploring the… pic.twitter.com/NsdfbBtWnz
But what is finally coming out about the origins of the blaze, months later, is that they are laying the blame on a BMW, and surviving garage surveillance tape is what helped narrow it down.
...A police report obtained by First Coast News on May 20 details the events that led up to the parking garage fire, including a review of surveillance footage, which showed the following:
- 8:07 a.m.: Dark-colored mid-size BMW enters hourly garage through upper level access
- 8:09 a.m.: Woman parks, exits car and walks toward departures
- 12:03 p.m.: Smoke observed coming from beneath the front of the car
- 12:04 p.m.: Vehicle is fully engulfed in fire. Camera loses visibility because of smoke
The report does not state whether the BMW was a gas, electric or hybrid vehicle.
They finally pulled the suspect vehicle out of the devastated garage a couple of weeks ago.
And unofficial reports are that it is a BMW L3.
A BMW L3 that's believed to be what started the fire at the Jacksonville International Airport hourly parking garage in May has been removed from the garage, a spokesperson for the airport told First Coast News on Wednesday.
According to everything I can find (and correct me if I'm wrong, please), L3 is a BMW-developed independent driving system (Level 3), not a car model. But the later year i3 models had the L3 system.
And if this vehicle is indeed an i3 - which we have no confirmation of - those aren't even considered hybrids. They were produced as EVs with a small gasoline motor 'range extender.' The bubblebutt end of the charcoaled hulk on the wrecker does resemble the hindquarters of an i3.
Still the perfect commuter car - absolutely ❤️ the BMW i3. The design is nearly ten years old and it’s as good as ever. pic.twitter.com/rOU6mV902a
— Steve Fowler (@SteveFowler) January 20, 2022
BMW stopped selling those in the States in 2021.
Beege ADDS: In the comments, someone notes it could well be an X3, which was known for having issues with fuel leaks in the engine compartment.
I'm not sure why it's taking so long to confirm what the model was if they've already announced the make.
In any event, the unfortunate soul to whom that vehicle belongs is in for a whale of a bill, and to be honest, with all the work I've done on these fires over the past couple of years, I never once gave a thought to this because I was so deep in the technical aspects.
This lady could well be on the hook for a lot of construction, lost revenue, pain, suffering, inconvenience, and the destroyed property of all those other drivers if I am reading the news reports correctly.
...There are still considerations regarding how the garage repairs will be paid for, and some officials have confirmed to news outlets that insurance coverage may be involved in covering the cost. Whether that comes from the owner of the BMW or not remains uncertain.
...The investigation into the cause of the fire is still underway. One major thing JAA is sorting out is how the driver, BMW and the valet company involved will be held financially accountable.
"We don't have any specifics of who's going to be paying for what, but we want to get that back, obviously, as quickly as we can to regroup all of those spaces that we lost during this period," JAA External Affairs Vice President Michael Stewart said during a June 18 board meeting. "Because it's going to be a rough estimate, a year and a half to get it back to operational."
That's some serious cha-ching. In the comments on the EV ocean carrier story yesterday, we were discussing the maritime insurance for those things and how it has to be astronomical, if a vessel can even get it at all.
If it turns out it was an EV Bimmer that started this, wow. I can't imagine how that will impact insurance rates on these things, and you know it has to.
It's one thing to be responsible for an accident in a parking lot and quite another to be inadvertently responsible for taking out the whole parking lot, including all the parked cars.
What a nightmare scenario.
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